Turtles will be Turtles
by EuroAmerican
Summary: The turtles are off on their daily patrol, and decide to drop in on April. Only to discover that it's not Actually April they just dropped in on. Rated for some language and later chapters. Mild romance, nothing crazy. Leave feedback if you like and want to read more. I don't own any of the tmnt characters!
1. Chapter 1

Donatello was bored. He had been sitting at his desk trying to think of a way to get April to notice him for far longer than he would like to admit. His legs were stiff from sitting for so long and his eyes were stinging from staring at the blank snowy pages of his notebook. He glanced at the clock on the wall to see it was starting to get late, which meant Leo would start knocking on the rest of the teams door to get ready for patrol. He yawned, stood, and stretched his arms while walking out of his room into the living area.

Michelangelo was sitting cross legged about three inches from the television screen, furiously mashing buttons in his fighting game. He and Raphael had decided to pass their time trying to beat the final boss, but Raph had given up throwing the controller at the couch and huffing off to the practice area to beat on the training dummy. Mikey, however was not so easily defeated. And after a short break, had continued to whoop some bad guy butt. Metaphorically speaking.

He looked up as he heard movement by Donnie's door, and sure enough the tallest of the 4 brothers was plodding his way to the sitting area.

"Hey bro! Where've you been all day"? Mikey asked, eyes now fixed firmly back on the screen.

"In the lab, you know working on some new, uh, stuff" lied Donnie. He really tried to keep the blush off his face but it just didn't happen.

"You're a terrible liar dude" Mikey smirked at his big brother quickly before his eyes were glued to his game again.

Just as Donnie was about to retort, Leonardo walked into the room closely followed by Raphael. The two oldest brothers had their gear already strapped to various belts and were standing clearly waiting for their little brothers to get ready. Raph had his arms crossed over his chest and was leaning against one of the many stone pillars of their underground home, while Leo walked down into the seating area to talk to his two youngest siblings.

"Are you guys almost ready to go? It's almost 10 and we have to get going," he glanced at Donatello quickly, "especially if we're going to stop by Aprils'."

"Were going to Aprils'?" Donatello Practically yelled. "Uh, I mean, that's cool I guess."

"Just hurry up lover boy, I want to get outside and stretch my legs." Raph yawned from his corned. Donnie just glared at him, but hurried off to fetch his Bo staff and T-cell none the less.

"Come one Mikey, you can't keep playing this thing all day and all night." Leo added to the baby of the bunch.

"Just let me get to a save spot!"

Raph slowly walked around to the other side of the room, "You know that game doesn't work that way." As he got to the other side of the television set, his foot "accidentally" popped the power cord out of the wall.

"Hey!"

Donatello returned from retreating his gear and had conveniently grabbed Mikey's stuff too. "Ok, let's go!"

Leonardo had stepped between Michelangelo and Raphael to prevent the impending wrestling match and sighed as Donatello practically sprinted out the door.

"Wait for me." Raph bolted after him and out of sight.

Mikey was sulking on the floor, so Leo handed him his gear with a sympathetic smile and ran after his brothers with the orange clad turtle hot on his heals.

When they'd reached the surface, the four brothers always forgot that they were angry at each other. They stood on the roof tops with the cool night air blowing across their brows and the stars were starting to peek out behind the dark night clouds. The sounds of the city floated up to them from the streets below and the neon signs lit up the city in a rainbow of colors.

The four brothers smiled to themselves for the briefest second before Leo turned to them and suggested they get moving. As they leapt across the roof tops toward their friends house they kept their eyes and ears peeled for and sign of the Foot, the Krang or the Purple Dragons.

"I think you guys should wait here while I check on April" Donatello said as they landed of the roof to Aprils' aunts apartment complex.

"Why do you always want to see her alone?" Queried Raph, "You'd think you liked her or something."

Mikey snickered as his brothers mercilessly poked fun at their love sick sibling.

"Yeah," joined in Leo "It's like you think she's cute."

All three of the others turned to him with confused looks on their faces.

"Leave the snide comments to me, ok Leo?" Raph said after a slight pause. "Alright, go ahead. But be quiet for once!"

Donatello crept down the fire escape and tapped gently on Aprils window. "April? Are you still awake?" He waited for a few moments just in case she was indecent and was putting on some clothes. The thought brought a blush to his cheeks as he was picturing it, but when there was no answer, he knocked again.

After a couple more moments, he decided to try opening the window. If it was unlocked she was still awake and expecting them. If not, she was probably asleep. He grasped the little handle and twisted, his heart leapt as he heard a click, and the window swung noiselessly on its hinges. Donnie cautiously stepped inside her room just far enough to see if she was there. He saw a light on in her bathroom and heard the water running so decided to wait for her to come out so he could see her and say good night.

His thoughts drifted off to April, and he started daydreaming about sweeping her off her feet and her swooning as he told her he loved her. He grinned to himself then mentally shook himself back to reality as the faucet squeaked off and he heard the door opening.

"April!" he said enthusiastically, only to discover that the girl who stood in front of him, was not April, not even close. This girl was taller than April, with brown hair and glasses. She was lean and tone and Donnie couldn't help but notice that she was wearing very short shorts and a tank top that showed her midriff. She stood in the door with her hand still on the handle, clearly stunned at the fact that there was a huge green turtle standing not three feet away from her. Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. "Oh crap."


	2. Chapter 2

Donatello was completely stunned, there was another girl in April's room and she hadn't warned them not to come over tonight. This was a disaster, he doubted April had told this girl about them. Especially since she looked like she was about to faint, which wouldn't be so bad. At least if she fainted she wouldn't make a noise and he could let April know what happened without the others finding out. Or worse, Aprils' aunt fining out. If she found out they would surely move away and take April with them, he couldn't bear the thought of that. He really did like her, he would never admit it out loud, aside from that first comment he had made when they first laid eyes on her, but that was because he had been so shocked by her he didn't even know what he was saying.

The girl was still just staring at him, he wasn't sure what to do. So he uttered an obscenity under his breath, but apparently she had heard as the silence was abruptly ended when she started freaking out. First she started breathing really heavy and looked slightly mad. They he noticed her eyes darting around, but for what? Then he saw her lunge for the standing lamp in the corner. Before he could react she had it firmly in her hands and had ripped it out of the wall.

"April!" She yelled at the closed door. "Ms. O'Neil!"

"Oh no, no don't do that!" he pleaded taking a step toward her.

The girl swung the lamp with more force than he was expecting, but being a ninja he blocked it easily and disarmed her with a gently shove to her shoulder and a tug on the lamp. She fell down but sprang up again immediately, apparently prepared to defend herself if need be. Donnie heard footsteps running up the stairs behind the closed door and decided to bolt for the window before he was discovered again. As he reached the window, something struck the back of his head and he practically fell onto the fire escape, with a quick glance back he saw the girl looking utterly terrified but determined as her glasses were now askew and her hair which was in a neat pony, was now wild and tangled around her face.

He closed the window quietly and then sprinted back up to the roof. He scrambled over the lip of the roof breathing heavily and collapsed onto the ground.

"What happened? We heard yelling?" Leonardo asked immediately.

"It's bad guys, it's very bad!" Donnie said panicking slightly.

"What? Did you try and kiss April or something else incredibly dumb?" joked Raph.

"God I wish that were the case. April wasn't in her room."

"So what's the big deal? It's not like anyone was in there's right?" there was a pauses which Donatello looked at his three brothers very sheepishly. "Right?" Demanded Raph.

"Damn it Donnie!" snapped Leo, he walked away fuming silently just in case someone heard. After all it was unlikely all that ruckus went unnoticed by too many people. This was New York after all, most people would ignore yelling, but there was always a couple of people who would make sure it was nothing too serious. "We have to make sure this person won't talk. Was April there at all?" Leo stomped back over to his ridiculously smart but socially moronic little brother.

"No, but she will be. The girl was calling her name so I would assume they're friends." Donatello reached behind his head and felt a small bump forming where what ever had been thrown at him had hit him. "She's certainly got a good arm on her though, and good aim." he noted mostly to himself.

"What are you taking about?" Interrupted Raph.

"She attacked me with a lamp, then threw something at my head." He said nonchalantly, "It didn't hurt particularly just caught me off guard."

"It's a good job your head is so hard!" Chirped in Mikey, he and Raph high three'd and chuckled to themselves oblivious to the seriousness of the situation.

"This is awful, what if she rats us out? We'll won't be able to live freely in the city anymore!" Leo was pacing trying to figure it out.

"Why don't we just wait up here for the time being and try and talk to April? I'm sure she can straighten everything out with this girl!" Mickey was playing a game on his T-phone and was only half paying attention.

"Why do you only have good ideas when your not even trying, or even a real part of the conversation?" asked Raph.

"What?"

"Never mind."

Leonardo had stopped pacing and looked at his brothers, they didn't really have a choice, maintaining their secrecy was priority number one. They couldn't have people finding out about them or they would be in serious trouble. They had to make sure this girl understood what was going on and kept their secret, he didn't want to think what would happen if she refused.

"Ok, here's the plan. Donnie try and get ahold of April as soon as possible. Raph and Mickey, go and make sure none of the neighbors are asking questions, if they are let us know so we can move if need be. I'll make sure no one tries to come up to the roof." Leo turned around to literally see no one standing there, his hot headed and goofball brothers understood that containment was the key and had sprang into action as soon as he had told them to move. "Damage control was in progress, all they could do was hope April picked her friends wisely."

Down in the apartment, April burst through her door at a full sprint. "What! What is it!"

Her friend, Holly, was shaking like a leaf pointing at the window. Her breathing was harsh and she couldn't quite seem to for full sentences yet. She just kept repeating "Big," and "Holy Crap!"

The turtle boys wouldn't be stupid enough to come into her room if they had seen someone else would they? She grasped her friend by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "What did you see?"

"Big...Green...Thing!" Holly tried. She had no idea what she had seen, just that it was not human, and it was really tall. As tall as she was actually.

"What on earth is going on up here?" Aprils aunt had finally made it up the stairs to the spare bedroom. She was a dumpy woman, who wore lots of tweed jackets and ugly skirts, but she was a sweet woman who was always worrying about others and cooked a mean meat loaf.

"I think she saw a big spider." April automatically responded, she had been preparing for this situation, just incase.

"A spider, I ran up those stairs for a silly little spider?" Aprils aunt huffed as she straightened her hair.

Holly's eyes snapped to April's, making sure she understood what exactly was going on. "No, it was really big! Like, really big!" she protested.

"I'm sure dear, but it's still just a spider." Aprils aunt tutted as she retreaded back out of the room.

Once the door was closed and April was sure her aunt was back down stairs, she turned to Holly who looked thoroughly confused and scared. "Was it a big green spider?" she asked

Holly just nodded, clearly befuddled and bewildered.

"Hold on a moment, and don't freak out anymore. I'll explain what I can in just a moment." April reached for her phone that was on the dresser, it had six messages all from Donatello sounding quite desperate.

"Im really sorry April, but I think I scared your friend!"

"We really need to talk to you, is your friend ok? Is she calm yet?"

April we really need to know if everything's ok!"

"April?"

"APRIL!"

"Sorry, I panicked for a sec there!"

She shook her head and, replied to the texts with a quick message.

"She's ok, stunned but ok. I'll explain to her. See if she wants to actually meet you!"

She looked back at her friend and smiled softly. This was going to be really hard. Walking over to Holly, she grasped her by the arm and walked her over to the bed. They sat together, Holly still wide eyed and April still not sure where to start.

Holly broke the silence first. "What was that thing?"

"Well, if you saw what I think you saw then they're friendly, and you have to believe me on that!" April really wasn't sure where to start. How was she supposed to explain that she hangs out with four mutant turtle brothers and their master, a giant rat?

"Oh well now I feel much better." Holly snapped back. "Wait a minute... You said "they're". There's more that one!" She started shaking again.

"Oh boy. Ok,so remember when my dad was kidnapped along with all the other scientists in the city?"

Holly nodded, not trusting her voice again just yet.

"Ok, well I was there when he was taken. They would have taken me too, but that thing you saw saved me when I fell out of the helicopter. If it weren't for them I wouldn't be here." April hoped that would at least convince her they were friendly.

"Right... You fell out of a chopper and a big green, thing, saved you. Just how hard did I hit my head in the shower again?"

April sighed, she knew it all sounded crazy and she would expect some doubt if she had to tell someone, but Holly was smart and knew she wouldn't make things like this up. She decided that they would have to do something drastic to convince Holly to keep her mouth shut.

"Would you be willing to meet them, all of them, and talk to them?" April had her phone out already, ready to send a message to Donatello if Holly would cooperate.

"How long exactly have you know about these things?" Holly asked with suspicion dripping off ever word. She narrowed her eyes at her red headed friend, mentally debating if she was the crazy one, or if April was stark raving mad.

"Uh, about six months."

"Six months!" yelled Holly. April hastily tackled her friend into the bed, hand clamped firmly over her mouth.

"Shh, keep it down! My aunt doesn't know about them. Only I really know about them, and I swear they're friendly."

"Your crazy! Completely mad!" Holly was so confused still, she couldn't understand how there were great big green monsters running around, or how April seemed to know all about them, it mad no sense. "Ok, there are clearly green monsters running around as I have just witnessed it with my own eyes, but how did they get here? Where did they come from?"

April thought about the turtles and splinter and wondered how much she should really reveal. She didn't think that Holly could deal with finding out about the Foot clan and the Krang right now, that might push her right over the edge.

"Well, they used to be turtles, just regular turtles, but they mutated when they were exposed to a dangerous chemical substance and they have been living underground for the last 15 years or so."

"Ok, well then what mutated them? It would have had to have been something pretty special to alter the DNA of a regular animal so drastically?" Holly couldn't help her self, her love of science had overtaken her fear and now she was curious.

"I have no idea, but Donatello is extremely smart and I bet you could discuss theories with him." April cracked a small smile, she had her now. Holly was far too inquisitive to pass up talking science with another brainiac.

Holly still looked cautious though, she had thought the green monster was going to eat her or something, but now she was being told by her best friend that it was a mutated turtle who had saved her life. What was she thinking? Those things were monsters! Holly looked April over once more trying to see if there was anything that might give away that she was lying, or that she was hallucinating. But when nothing presented its self, she decided that this might actually be real.

"I don't know April. This sounds crazy!"

"I'll tell you what, come up to the roof with me and at least meet them. If you don't like it, I'll bring you back down here and we can go one with our night as planned." April offered.

Holly though once more, weighing all the options over. She couldn't very well forget what she had seen, but she couldn't tell anyone either. Who would believe her? They would put her in the looney bin for sure. Plus who was she to judge someone because of their looks, no one looked twice at her when she moved New York. All the kids in her class thought she was weird and avoided her. April was her first friend and had remained her closest friend since that day. She sighed and finally admitted defeat.

"Alright, I give in. I would at least apologies for throwing that stapler at one of their head. Oh how many of them are there exactly?" Holly asked nervously.

"Four, well five if you include Master Splinter"

"Who now?"

"Never mind, just put on some clothes and follow me up the fire escape!"


	3. Chapter 3

The turtle boys were sat on the roof of Aprils apartment for almost a half an hour before they got any news. April had convinced her friend to keep quiet and to meet them on the roof so they could all straighten everything out. Leonardo was back to pacing, Raph was leaning against a roof access looking sullen. Donnie had recovered enough to keep calm and continue thinking about a certain red head, while Mikey was still sitting cross legged thumbs racing over the screen of his hand held game, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth.

"What is taking so long?" Raph demanded, as if that would help any.

"Give it time, I'm sure Donnie scared that poor girl pretty bad. How would you feel if you came face to face with something that didn't exist?" Leo reasoned.

"I wake up to Mikey's cooking everyday, I now exactly how she feels." Raph shot back.

Michelangelo just glared at Raphael. Raph never seemed to hate his cooking that much since he always ate it, and usually took seconds.

They all turned as the ladder started rattling against the bricks of the building, scraping harshly and digging deep grooves into the concrete. Aprils fiery hair was visible first, she hopped over the low wall and smiled at her mutant friends.

"Hey guys, sorry we took so long. I really need to start locking that window when I have company over." April smiled sheepishly at the guys. She was literally about to lock the window when her aunt had called to her that the pizza was burning.

"Hey April!" Donnie said overly enthusiastically. The others nodded at April as they noticed a brown haired girl climbing up onto the roof.

"Guys, this is Holly. First off, who came into my room?"

"That was me," Donnie grinned rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry about that, I thought it was you in the other room." He turned to Holly, "Sorry if I startled you, I really didn't mean to scare you."

Holly stood with her arms crossed in front of her chest. "It's fine, sorry I assaulted you with a lamp. Oh, and sorry I threw a stapler at your head." Aprils head snapped around at her friend. "What, I thought he was trying to rob you, or eat me! I had to defend myself."

"You got beat up by a girl with a lamp, oh that's rich!" Raph laughed Donnie's expense.

"Dude! How'd she hit you with a stapler, your supposed to have ninja reflexes!" Mickey joined his brother laughing as Donnie turned red in the cheeks.

"Would you guys knock it off, this is still a serious situation." Leonardo turned and looked Holly straight in the eyes. "I'm sorry to sound rude here, but we need to be sure that you aren't going to tell anyone about us. We have to remain hidden from the world to ensure our safety."

Holly dropped her arms to her sides and sighed. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Besides, who would I tell? April is pretty much my only friend right now. Plus, if I did tell I'm sure I'd either be laughed at or dragged off for a mental health screening."

"Good. Now that that is out of the way, I'm Leonardo. Everyone calls me Leo." Leo held out his hand to the girl who stood on the roof of the apartment in a track suit and no shoes. She hesitated, but only for a moment before grasping his hand and shaking it gently.

"It's, interesting, to meet you. I'm Holly." She smiled nervously at him, then glanced at the others.

"That's Mikey on the floor, and the sulky one is Raph." Leo pointed to his brothers. "You already met the so called genius Donatello." Leo narrowed his eyes warningly at the purple clad turtle.

"Yeah, I really am sorry. My instincts just kind of took over for a minute there." Holly grimaced at him.

"It's alright, you didn't hurt me. I will admit that I was surprised that you didn't just keel over like most people do." Donnie laughed nervously. Holly chuckled too. April just kept quiet beaming happily to herself. She had been dying to tell someone about the turtle brothers. She never would reveal their secret willingly but now that someone else had stumbled upon them it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.

"This is so awesome!" April squealed. Leo gave her a weird look, as did Holly. "Sorry, but it's nice to have someone else around that I can talk to about you guys!"

"You've wanted to talk about us?" Donnie asked

"Well yeah, it's kind of hard keeping such a big secret. Besides it will be nice to talk to a girl for a change." April stated plainly.

Holly just shook her head. This was, by far, the strangest day ever. She just stood for a moment taking it all in. Her best friend had somehow found a group of mutated turtles and befriended them after her father was abducted. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, something strange was going on. She was missing pieces of this puzzle and now that she had started it she wanted to see the bigger picture.

"You said that these guys had started life as ordinary turtles right?" Holly directed the question at April, but Donatello was the one to answer.

"Yes that's right, we were pets but when our owner was covered in a mutagen some of it splashed on us and we changed into what you see now." Donnie gestured at himself and his brothers.

"It's a shame you guys didn't end up as good looking as me." chimed in Mikey.

Raph smacked him over the back of the head. "You wish half pint. Besides we all know I'm the good looking one." Raphael tapped himself on the plastron to emphasize his point.

Holly laughed softly, but turned her attention back to Donatello. "That's all well and good, but where did the mutagen come from. There is no way that it was just lying around and if it were just some radioactive waste it would have given you cancer and killed you, not mutated you into half-man, half -turtles."

"She catches on quickly doesn't she?" Donatello looked over a April.

"That's why she's my science partner!" April replied brightly.

"I hope that's not the only reason I'm your science partner." Holly huffed, crossing her arms back across her chest.

The rat-tag group of friends laughed together, and even Holly cracked a smile. Raphael just stood in a corner, brows furrowed and scowl firmly in place. "Now that we're all happy with each other, how about we head off on our patrol? You know, like we were supposed to do an hour ago."

"But I have so many more questions!" Holly took a step toward the group, wanting to learn more.

"Unfortunately we do have to go, but if you like, April can bring you to our place tomorrow. If you feel up to it." Leo offered. They needed to get back and inform Master Splinter what had happened. He wouldn't be happy, but he would see they had tried to fix the mess they had made.

"We should be able to, we have all weekend to do our project and tomorrow is only Saturday. What do you think?" April turned to Holly, and so did four other sets of eyes.

Holly suddenly felt timid, which was not something she felt often. She took a step backwards again and stammered, something else she didn't usually do. "Uh, y...yeah I suppose you'll have questions for me too. You know, to make sure I'm trustworthy."

"Alright, well we'll see you girls tomorrow." Leo waved as he motioned for his siblings to follow suit. Without a backwards glance he took off over the roof tops at full speed.

"It's about time, later April." Raph looked stiffly at Holly, "and you too I guess."

Holly was taken aback, what the hell was that? Did she do something? She pursed her lips and frowned behind her glasses, what a jerk!

"Don't worry, he's just putting on a tough front. It's kind of his thing." April winked at her.

"See you Ape, and is there any chance you could bring some pizza with you tomorrow?" Mikey gave them his best puppy dog eyes.

"Let's go Mikey, see you Holly. Bye April." Donnie waggled his fingers at April then proceeded to shove Mikey toward the next roof top. They ran and lept across to the next building almost silently.

Holly was amazed, and ran to the ledge after them. She watched as their frames grew smaller as the bounced out of sight into the night sky. April walked up behind her friend and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Let's go back inside, your toes must be frozen."

Holly just nodded, and let herself be steered back toward the fire escape, down the ladder and back through the window into Aprils warm bedroom. How was she going to sleep tonight? There were so many questions buzzing around her cranium that she could hardly stand it.

The turtles had finished their patrols and had made it back in the lair undetected. Even though they didn't get to beat up any Foot ninjas, tonight had certainly been eventful. Leonardo had gone straight to Master Splinter and informed him of what had happened. He had then sat his boys down for a serious conversation.

"Do you think she is trustworthy?" Splinter asked his adopted children.

"I think so sense, she seems like a good person." Leonardo answered first.

"And what about the rest of you? What does your gut tell you?"

"I think she's awesome!" bellowed Mikey, "She nailed Donnie in the head with a stapler!" He laughed to himself as Donatello glared at him out of the corner of his eye.

"I will say she seemed guenuile startled when she saw me, which would mean she's not a spy." Donatello added.

Splinter had noticed that Raphael had not said one word, he hadn't even looked his master in the eyes. Very suspicious.

"Raphael, do you have any input in this conversation?" Splinter eyed his son carefully, trying to read his emotions. But for once, Raphael was playing his hand close to his chest.

"We only spoke to her for maybe 20 minutes, I can't tell what a person is like after 20 minutes." He spoke to his master and father, but kept his eyes focused anywhere else.

Splinter had a feeling about what was going on, but didn't push his son for an explanation. If he wanted to talk, he would talk.

"We invited her over tomorrow so you could judge for yourself sense. April is bring her over so we can get to know each other a little better, and hopefully gain ourself another ally." Leonardo hoped his father would not be disappointed in his decision.

Splinter stroked his beard thoughtfully. It would be nice to have another set of eyes and ears on the surface, but he could not risk his families safety. "I will meet with this girl tomorrow. If we decide she is trustworthy then she will be welcomed as we have welcomed Miss O'Neil. If not, we should avoid her as much as possible."

Raphael glanced for the briefest second at his sense, but lowered his gaze back to his knees. A chorus of "hai sense" was heard, and the meeting was over.

Mickey stretched his arms and stood up, "who's hungry?"

"I'm famished." sighed Donnie. It had been an especially hard day for him, and some dinner sounded wonderful. That and a good long sleep.

"I could go for a slice of pizza or two. Is there any left in the fridge?" Leo followed Mikey into their kitchen space, with Donnie close behind.

Raphael stood in silence and turned towards his bedroom.

"Aren't you hungry Raph?" yelled Mikey.

He didn't even turn around, he just stomped right through his door and slammed it shut.

His brothers peeked out around the stone archway that led to their kitchen. They gave each other a nervous glance, eyebrows raised. It wasn't often that Raph got in one of those moods where he didn't even want to break something.

"What's eating him up?" Asked Leo to no one in particular.

"Do you think he doesn't trust Holly? Or do you think he's mad that I screwed up royally?" Donnie asked nervously.

"Who knows, I bet he's just mad he didn't get to beat up some Foot." Mikey said through a slice of pizza.

"There had better be some of that left for us." Leo snarled.

"There's plenty left for you Leo!" Mikey pretended to sound hurt, "There just might not be enough for you and Donnie."

"Hey!"

The brothers continued to squabble for a while until they made it to the sofas and turned on a movie. One by one they drifted off to their own rooms, throwing a quick glance at Raphaels' door. They would be sure to ask him what was up tomorrow before the girls came over. They didn't want to drive Holly off because he had issues, they needed her to like them and want to keep their world a secret or it was game over for their family.


	4. Chapter 4

Raphael stomped back and forth in his room. What had happened today was really bothering him. He stopped pacing for a moment and turned to spike, his pet turtle. "I don't know about her spike. She gives me a funny feeling in my gut." He returned to pacing. Spike just chewed on the lettuce leaf that was in front of him. Raph couldn't figure out what is was that was bothering him. It wasn't that she had hit Donnie in the head, that was just funny. It wasn't that she had freaked out as that was to be expected. So what was it?

He mulled it over as he watched his pet finish his dinner. It was probably getting early by now, and he should hit the hay, especially if April and Holly were going to be coming over. He wanted to be fully rejuvenated if he was going to figure out why this girl was on his mind so much. There had to be something. He didn't think she was going to tell the secret, from what little they had talked, she seemed cool, just as April had. But what was different?

Raph groaned and threw himself on his bed. He'd figure it out tomorrow. This was too much thinking for his liking, that was normally Donatello's field of expertise. With one final glance at his beloved spike, Raphael rolled over and drifted off to sleep.

The following day Donatello was up early, he was anxious to see April, as always. But he was also somewhat excited to see Holly again. See seemed really nice, and really smart. She had instantly come to the conclusion that someone had manufactured the mutagen. He didn't get the opportunity to talk to others that astute very often, look at what he had for brothers for goodness sake! Regardless it would be nice to have someone else on the surface to keep an eye on things while they were stuck underground during the days.

As he made his way to the kitchen for some breakfast, Donnie was surprised to see Raph already sitting at their small table with a cup of coffee in front of him.

"You shouldn't drink that stuff, it will stunt your growth." Donnie snickered, Raph always was a bit sensitive at the fact that he was the shortest of the four of them. Even Mikey had an inch on him.

Raph just glared at him, he was too tired to really give a damn today.

"What's up? you look awful." Donnie asked.

"Didn't get much sleep. Why are you up so early?" Donnie just grinned and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, never mind."

"So, why couldn't you sleep? Something on your mind?"

Raph debated weather or not to talk to Donatello, he was the smartest guy he knew so surely he had some kind of idea what was going on. "What do you think of Holly?" He had to ask, he couldn't take it anymore.

"She seems nice. I'd like to get to know her better just to make sure we really can trust her, but I'm pretty certain everything will be fine. Why, don't you think she's trustworthy?" Donnie was a little concerned. He hadn't know Raphael to ever really worry about their safety with in the city.

"No, I think she is too. There's just something else about her, I can't put my finger on it." Raph scrunched up his face trying to think. But Donatello was smart, and he had a feeling he might know what was up. But he knew Raph would figure it out eventually, so he kept his thoughts to himself and just asked some questions to steer conversation in the right direction.

"Well, what do you think of her?"

"Like I said, she seems nice enough, and I do think she will be trustworthy. She's also got some useful skills apparently since she nearly too your head off," Raph shot Donnie a smug look before he continued, "She's smart too. I think she'll fit in just fine around here."

"Anything else?" Donnie urged, letting the snarky comment slide this one time.

Raph shrugged. Donatello just sighed, this was going to take a while. Donnie took a breath to continue his interrogation but was interrupted by a bleary looking Mikey shuffling into the kitchen.

"What's for breakfast? Oh, Is there any pizza left?" he smiled brightly at his brothers before bolting to the fridge.

"No, because you at it all yesterday!" Yelled Donatello. "You ate my slices yesterday, remember?"

"Not really, all I remember is you getting beat up by a girl!" Mikey laughed at his own joke, Donnie huffed but remained silent while Raph just drank his coffee.

"Urgh. Hey Donnie could you have the girls pick up some cream for us, I hate this stuff black." Raph said before standing to leave. He drained the rest of his mug and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Mikey.

"To practice, might as well do it now before everyone else shows up." and with that, he was gone.

"Is he ok? He seems out of it." Mikey asked Donnie, voice full of concern.

"Don't worry, he's fine. He just doesn't know it yet. I'll text April quick, then we should probably train too. Master Spinter won't go easy on us just because we're having company over."

The two youngest turtle brothers sat eating breakfast talking about the girls. They were eager to see them, and let their Master give his approval of their new friend. Donnie texted April a list of a few things they needed and asked if they wouldn't mind bringing them to the lair. It was difficult grocery shopping when your a five foot tall mutant turtle.

April and Holly had woken up ridiculously early that day. They were both too wound up to sleep and both wanted to go and see the turtle boys as soon as possible. They dressed and went down stairs to eat breakfast with April's aunt, who was surprised to see them up at this time of day. They dashed back up stairs to get their belongings and practically ran out the door when April had received a message from Donnie.

The walked the streets of New York until they reached a small convenience store, where they bought some milk, sugar, eggs, bread and some other bits and pieces their awaiting friends required. Lastly, they went to Mikey's favorite pizza place and ordered six large pizzas, all with different toppings on them.

As they walked to the entrance to the sewers, Holly had to ask something. "Do you think they like me? I mean, I know that meeting me was unexpected, but I don't want them to think they can't trust me."

"Of course, they'll be a little reserved at first, well except Mikey, but they'll warm up to you." April beamed at her human friend. It was so nice to have another girl around. "I will warn you about Master Splinter though."

Holly looked worried, April had already warned her that he was a giant rat, but that's all she had said.

"Don't worry, he will come across very serious for about a second, then he'll be fine. Unless he doesn't like you, then we're in trouble."

All the color drained from Hollys' face, it was bad enough that April was taking her into the sewers but to be faced with a giant rat that would decide wether or not she would be allowed to continue hanging out with April and the turtles was almost too much to bear. She really wanted him to like her. She had so many questions and so few answers. Now that she was a part of this she couldn't just walk away, she was so fascinated that she was just dying to know more.

April and Holly had made it to the entrance to the turtles home, they stood with their arms loaded with goodies, both looking nervous and excited all at once.

April looked at her friend and have her a reassuring smile, "Everything will be fine." she whispered and walked into the turtles home. "You guys, we're here, and we have goodies!"

Holly saw a blur of green and a streak of orange come flying at them from the kitchen. "APRIL!" Mikey yelled as he almost collided with the April. "What did you bring us?"

April grinned and handed the six pizza boxes over to the drooling turtle. He beamed up at her and raced back into the kitchen to start chowing down.

"Save some for the rest of us Mikey!" Leo yelled as he walked towards the girls, he took the bags from Holly with a small smile. "Welcome to our home."

He walked after Mikey to put their groceries away, and that's when holly noticed the elderly looking rat walking out of another room.

"So, you are the one who bested one of my sons." Splinter kept walking closer until he was about a foot in front of the nervous brunette. "If you would be so kind, could you tell me what happened?"

Holly swallowed hard, this rat looked strong and capable even if he did have gray streaks of fur. "Well, sir." she was sure to add the sir to show her respect, "I was brushing my teeth and when I came out of the bathroom I saw Donatello," she looked at April to make sure she had the right name, "standing in Aprils room. I didn't know what he wanted so I grabbed a floor lamp. When he stepped toward me I swung." She paused for a moment, looking for some kind of reaction. Was he angry at her? Or angry at Donnie for letting himself be caught?

"Continue, if you please."

"Ok, well he got the lamp from me when I swung and when he heard footsteps he bolted for the door. So, just for good measure I threw a stapler at his head. You know, to make sure he didn't come back." Holly grimaced slightly now that she had finished her story. All the turtles had made their way to where the rat and the girl were talking as they knew if their master was not happy, she would have to go.

Splinter stroked his chin thoughtfully, and then chuckled to himself. He looked over at his son who wore purple and smiled at him. "Your lucky she is not fully trained or I feel you would have been beaten quite badly."

Mikey laughed as Donatello blushed hard. Leo was smirking behind him too, but was at least trying to hide the fact that he found his brothers misfortune funny. Raphael stood in the corner arms folded, spike on his shoulder, frown on his face.

"Don't worry my sons, I think this young lady is not a threat to us. However I would like to learn more about you, since you now know so much about us."

Holly let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and happily followed the aged rat to the sofa. April sat next to Holly and Mikey, Donnie and Leo all sat around on various chairs or the floor as the little group got better acquainted.

Raphael hovered just outside the sunken seating area, not quite ready to drop his defenses just yet. He listened to every word Holly said, about how her mother had moved them to New York for a job. Her father lived in the upper mid west and had taught her how to bow hunt and how to take apart and rebuild an engine. Since learning about cars she had developed a love for science and figuring out how things worked. She and April had met in gym class, Holly hadn't had any friends and no one wanted to be her partner. They had then realized they had a few classes together and had been friends ever since.

Splinter listened to this girl who had stumbled onto their secret, and knew his boys were right. She was not going to reveal them to the world and would probable be a fresh addition to their family. Besides April seemed much happier too, she finally had someone more like herself that she could talk to and their friendship would grow now that they had a secret to share. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Raphael watching with some intensity, he hadn't said a single word in the last couple of hours which was very unlike him. April had seemed to notice this too as she was watching him, not even really listening anymore.

"My son, why don't you sit with the rest of us and join the conversation? Don't you have any questions for our guest?" Splinter motioned for him to sit with them.

Everyone's eyes were now on the red clad teen turtle. He started a little as he realized that they were watching him, waiting for him to do or say something. He looked them over individually, Mikey and April just looked confused. Leonardo had his eyes narrowed like his brain was thinking rather intently. Donatello and Splinter were hiding there emotions quite well, both looked smug about something, Raph didn't like that. Lastly he looked at Holly, she was sat right in the middle of everyone. Her hair was up in a pony still, and her black half-framed glasses were perched on her small nose. She looked right into his eyes, her head cocked slightly to one side asking a silent question that he didn't understand. Her eyes were the most unusual color, from where he was they were almost gray, but they had a hint of hazel in them too.

Raph was staring blankly at the little group. A few looks we're exchanged between the brothers , their sense and the red head girl on the couch. What was he doing? He had never been this quite before.

"Dude, your freaking me out bro!" Mikey broke the silence, and something seemed to shatter in the air. Some spell had been broken when everyone's head swiveled around to Michelangelo who sat cross legged on the floor.

"Whatever." Raph turned and walked with spike into the kitchen, he retreaved another lettuce leaf for his little buddy and stalked back to his room.

Everyone looked at each other, then they all turned to Holly.

"Did I say something?" She asked the room.

"No my dear, Raphael is just stubborn." Splinter rested his wrinkled had on the young girls forearm. "Now if you will excuse me, I must retire to my room and meditate. It has been an enlightening day."

A chorus of good nights echoed around the room form the remaining occupants. There was a slight pause in the conversation before Mikey had to open his big mouth once more.

"I wonder what's bugging him?"

"It's probably nothing, we all know he likes to pretend to be the tough guy. Anyway, who's hungry? April? Holly? Need anything to drink?" Leo hopped up and started heading toward the kitchen.

The rest of the night was enjoyable enough, they ate junk food and played video games for a while longer before April announced that she and Holly needed to get home and do some homework. The bid each other fair well, and even Raph poked his head out long enough to nod at the girls as the walked out of the door.

Later that night, April and Holly were back in Aprils bedroom. They sat with their notebooks and text books all over the room open to various pages, all covered with sticky notes and scribbles highlighting the important information.

Holly tried, she really did. But her mind kept wandering back to the turtles, one turtle in particular.

"Do you think that Raphael hates me?" She finally voiced the thought aloud.

"What? No, he's just stubborn, like Master Splinter said." April dropped her head back to her work, she knew that wasn't going to be the end of this discussion.

"I know. But he seemed so mad about something." she bit her lip slightly. "I don't want to make life uncomfortable for him."

April sighed. "I'll tell you what, I'll ask the others what's up and if it's something you can fix, I'll let you know."

Holly didn't look convinced, but decided not to push the topic any further. She put her nose back in her books and started copying down complex equations into her notes.

April glanced up at her friend, there was something going on here. And she was damn well going to find out what.


	5. Chapter 5

The following day, April and Holly knew they really had to finish their project for science class. They had managed to get quite a lot of work done last night, even with the constant interruptions from Donnie and April texting each other. Holly had not been able to concentrate at all, she had just spent the day with four mutant turtles and their rat father/master. School work seemed so insignificant right now. However, she did know that if she didn't get decent grades, her mother would see to it that she would not leave the house until they were straight A's.

April and Holly worked hard to get all their homework done early so they could go back over to the turtles lair. Donnie had been pestering them all morning until finally April had called him to calmly explain that they needed peace if they were going to be able to visit later.

"Gees, he's like a lost puppy or something." Commented Holly once April had calmed down.

"No, Mikey is the puppy dog. Donnie is just..." She didn't really know how to finish that sentence.

"Love sick?" Holly offered, with a smirk.

"What! Your crazy."

"Ok, if you say so." Holly was still grinning stupidly, and turned back to her book bag. She stuffed her note books away and swung it over her shoulder. "Are you almost ready?"

"Yeah just give me a second."

The girls walked into the lair arms full of goodies once again. Holly's mother had always told her that the way to a mans heart was through his stomach, and so far that was proving true with turtles too.

They found the boys lounging around in the living area. Leo was watching the television, Mikey was playing another video game and Donnie was busy tinkering with some contraption on the floor. Raph was playing the pinball machine in the corner, being rather aggressive and loud in the process.

"If your not careful you'll break that thing, and I'm not fixing it again if you do." Donnie hissed over his shoulder.

"This thing is rigged, I swear! How come I can never beat Mikey's score!" Raph yelled rocking the machine violently. A loud buzzing rang through the cavernous room as the anti-tilt function locked up the paddles. Raph growled as his last ball rolled out of play.

"You really should relax a little, you'll bust a blood vessel if your not careful." Holly said as she put the bags in the kitchen.

Raph scowled at her, but didn't snap back like he usually would. Instead he followed her into their kitchen and leaned up against one of the counters. "You know, if you keep buying food, Mikey won't let you leave."

"Oh, so we're talking to me today? It's nice to know you can talk." Holly peered at him over her glasses.

"What are you talking about? I spoke to you before." Raph muttered.

"Oh yeah I remember it so well. You said "I'm the handsome one." and the yesterday you said "whatever." Your a real conversationalist." Holly shot back.

"Hey, don't get sarcastic with me! I'm the sarcastic one." Raphael pushed off of the counter top and stood to face her fully.

"Funnily enough, I couldn't tell." Holly winked at him and walked out of the kitchen. Raph huffed to himself, but followed her out to join the others.

They made their way to the sofas, only to find that Mikey was trying to provoke an already irked Donatello. They were playing another game and apparently Mikey was destroying Donnie.

"Dude you suck at this!" Micky laughed as he killed Donnie again.

"That's because I have more important things to do than wear my thumbs out on some game!" Donnie yelled as he mashed the buttons as fast as he could. "I give up, here you play him!" He threw the controller at Raph.

"Not a chance." he said and passed the controller on to April.

"Alright, I'll give it a go." She said cheerfully.

An hour later, April and Mikey were tied in kills. They were both absolutely determined to destroy the other.

"Next kill wins?" April offered hopefully, her eyes were stinging from staring at the screen.

"Next kill wins." Agreed Mikey.

"Ready? Fight!" the television announced.

The characters on the screen rushed toward each other and as they smashed into each other, the group of teenagers in the room started yelling at the top of their lungs. Donnie was naturally cheering for April, as was Holly.

Raph and Leo were shouting for Mikey to "Get her!"

April and Mikey were yelling at each other and wincing along with their characters as their health bars dropped lower and lower.

April jumped up off the couch and yelled, "Try this on for size!" Her thumbs tapped out a combo that dealt so much damage.

"K.O.!"

Everyone stood stunned for a moment, no one had every beaten Mikey before. April broke the silence by jumping up and down whooping it up. She high fived Holly and Donnie then turned to Mikey, who was staring blankly at the screen.

"That... Was... Awesome!" He yelled. "That was the best game ever! How'd you do that?"

April shrugged. "I've played before, this game is quite old."

The girls and the turtles just talked for a while after all the excitement. They ate snacks and drank some soda until April looked at the time and announced that it was probably time to go. Since she and Holly had school the next day they had to be home early, or they we they'd both be in trouble.

"But it's only 4 in the afternoon." Whined Mikey, "Why do you have to go so soon?" He pouted, trying to look as cute as possible.

"Well, I promised my aunt I'd be home early so we can hang out." April said "Were gonna do some girly stuff, I'm kind of excited."

"what's your excuse?" Raph nodded at Holly.

She narrowed her eyes at him briefly, "I have a long way to go to get home. So I have to set off now or I'll never get home before my mom and I'll get in trouble."

"What do you mean?" Asked Leo.

"My mom works most days, as long as I'm home before she is, I get to do whatever I want." She said with a shrug.

"Don't you get lonely?" Mikey asked.

"Sometimes." She was a pause as everyone looked at her.

April knew how she felt, since her father had gone missing, she had spent much more time alone. That was why was always hanging out at the lair, it made her feel less lonesome.

"Anyway, I really do have to go. I have a couple of miles to walk to get back home." Holly turned to retrieve her bag. "Ready to go?"

April nodded and they both bid their mutant friends goodbye.

Holly walked through the door to her and her mothers home, she kicked off her shoes and listened for any sign of life. "Hello? Mom?" No answer. Holly sighed and continued through to her bedroom stoping briefly in the kitchen for a glass of water.

Raph found that he was disturbed to find out that Holly lived mostly alone. Yes, on occasion he wanted some space to himself, but he really did like having his brothers around. He would never admit it to them of course. He admired Leonardo, he was so strong and sure of himself, and always seemed to know what to do when things got tough. Donatello was so smart, he was always coming up with new equipment and now he was designing those go karts and who knew what else. Mikey was so spirited, he lived life in the moment and always saw the bright side of life. Raph couldn't imagine life without his brothers, or Master Splinter. Maybe someone should have gone with the girls, to make sure they got home safe.

April showed up to the lair over the next week alone. She told the boys that Hollys mother had gone out of town for the week and had told her to stay at home when she wasn't at school.

"Why doesn't she just go out anyway? I thought she went out all the time?" Mikey asked.

"Not when her mom is gone completely. She calls every night to make sure she's home, never at the same time."

"That seems a little unnecessary." Donnie added

"Well, most parents don't trust their kids when they're our age. It's surprising Hollys mom leaves her completely alone for a few days." April shrugged. She knew her dad wouldn't leave here alone for more than a day.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Mikey looked up from his comic.

"She doesn't have any of your numbers." April stated simply.

"Oh yeah."

April shook her head and rolled her eyes, sometimes Mikey could be so forgetful. "I was going to go over later today and keep her company for a while, Im sure she'd be happy to see you all too."

Mikey hopped up, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go rescue Holly from the evil clutches of boredom!" Mikey waggled his fingers and did his best bad guys laugh. Raphael threw a cushion at his head. "Hey! Why do you have to be such a kill joy?"

Raph just grinned maliciously, "You wanna have some fun? I'll show you some fun?" He dove across the room at his little brother and they began to wrestle across the floor. April pulled her feet up onto the couch to avoid any squished toes. She chuckled as the boys roughed each other up. Typically it ended up with Raph pinning Mikey, who would tap out, but dive right back in for more punishment.

"Alright you guys, cut it out." Leo shook his head at his brothers, and grabbed Raph by the shell to pull him off Mikey.

"Where exactly does Holly live? I want to make sure that we would have access to her apartment without running the risk of getting caught." Donnie turned to ask April.

"She lives in one of those swanky apartment blocks, on the top floor." April pulled up the building on Donnie's laptop. "She has a big concrete balcony leading out of their living room, you won't have an issue with access."

"Why does she live there?" asked Raph, "I wouldn't have pegged her as one of the snobs that typically live there."

"It's not like it was her choice, her mom picked the apartment, she just lives there." April said with a chuckle. "Anyway, I'm going to head over there now, you guys should probably wait until its dark." She grabbed her belongings and set off out of the lair. "See you guys in a while."

"Are you going to ask her if she wants us to come over? I would understand if she didn't want Mikey in her home." Raph shoved Mikey playfully.

"Why wouldn't she want to see me?" Mikey pouted.

All of the boys, and even April, shot him a questioning look. "Mikey, your always breaking stuff. Why would you be any different at someone else's house?" Donnie stated blankly.

"I don't always break stuff." Mikey folded his arms across his chest and continued sulking.

"Well anyway, I'm going now before I get sucked into this. See you later guys." April walked out of the lair, cell phone ready to call and let her aunt know she was going to Hollys. If it started to get too late she would need a ride, she wasn't going to walk home after dark with the purple dragons out and about. That would just be asking for trouble.


	6. Chapter 6

April sat in Hollys kitchen watching the little television on the countertop. Holly was busy rummaging thought the fridge looking for something easy she could quickly cook up for the both of them.

"Remind me, your not allergic to anything right?" Holly peeked out behind the door.

"Not that I'm aware of, no." April took a swig of her water. "Why, what are you thinking of?"

"Pad tai noodles, although I really can't be bothered cooking." She closed the refrigerator and turned to April. "I'm just going to use some of the money mom left me to order something. Do you like Chinese? I know a great place that delivers."

"Yeah, I love Chinese! Do you have a menu?" April jumped up as Holly went to the draw where her mother kept all the take out menus for every restaurant in the area. They leaned on the counter top shoulder to shoulder deciding what to order.

Holly popped up when she thought she heard a tapping. "Did you hear that?" She spun around and walked through the arch way that led to the living room. She nearly fell over backwards when the saw who was rapping on the French doors that let to the balcony.

"Are you gonna let us in or what?" Raph was crouching down slightly, trying to hide behind the stone pillar that surrounded the door. If one of Hollys neighbors were to walk out onto their balcony it would be a difficult situation to try and explain.

She rushed to the door and opened it quietly. She grabbed his arm and tugged him inside roughly, closing the door behind him.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed at him. Hands on her hips.

"We haven't seen you in four days. Is it so bad that we missed you and wanted to make sure you were ok?" Raph snapped back, not really thinking what he was saying.

Hollys expression softened, and she sighed. "Wait, are the others here too?" She walked back over to the door and peeked out, not seeing them.

"They're on the roof, we didn't think it would be wise to all be waiting on the balcony." He pointed up to emphasize his point.

"So, how'd you get to be so lucky as to be the one to jump down?" She looked over her shoulder at him as she opened the doors. He blanched as he realized he didn't want to give her an answer. He had volunteered.

She stepped out into the cold night air in her baggy flannel pajamas and turned her gaze skyward. The night wind whipped her hair around her face and tugged at the hems of her pant legs. She saw the other turtle teens up on the roof, peeking over the lip down at her. She checked to make sure none of her neighbors were near their doors and beckoned them down. Three green figures hurled themselves over the wall and alighted soundlessly on the concrete next to her, they then dashed inside out of the sight of any curious eyes. Holly checked the other balconies once more, and ran in to meet them. Closing the blinds, just to be sure that no one could possible discover the turtles.

"Well, this is a nice surprise!" Holly said to the now full room. April had walked calmly out of the kitchen with a smug grin plastered across her face.

"Any you guys were worried she wouldn't want to see you?" April threw one arm around Donnie and the other over Leo, gave them a quick squeeze and then continued through to stand next to Holly. Donnie's face had a pink tinge to it, which was impressive since his skin was green.

Holly beamed at the little group now standing in her home, she had never really had this many friends. It was a nice feeling, knowing that there was someone out there who wanted to make her smile. "You guys." Was all she could say.

April put an arm around her shoulders and squished her gently. "I had a feeling you may want some additional company."

Mikey stood on Hollys other side and rested a hand on her shoulder. "I wouldn't want to go more than a day with out me either." Holly laughed, but gave him a playful shove, just to deflate his ego a bit.

"Ok, well I'm still hungry so let's get some food on the way and then we can all get back to socializing." April said, waving the menu back and fourth.

Holly ordered six different entrees, three containers of fried rice and a couple of orders of wontons for good measure. The group then wandered into the kitchen and all sat around the centre island waiting for the food to get there.

"Ok I have to ask, where did your mom go that was so important that she had to leave you alone for almost a week?" Leo asked.

"She works in fashion, and this week is the London fashion week, she goes every year." Holly shrugged, "She has only left me alone the last two years, and the year I was fifteen she had our neighbor stay with me until I was asleep."

"And she trusts you not to have wild parties or anything?" Raph asked, "I know I would."

"Yeah!" Mikey chimed in.

"Our building has a doorman that's there all day, she would know if I had company over."

"Is she ok with me being here?" April asked warily.

"Oh yeah, I asked her if you could come over. She likes you, and knows you won't be a bad influence on me." April snorted. Holly couldn't help but chuckle along with her. If her mother only knew.

A little while later the doorman called up to Hollys apartment letting her know the delivery man was there. Holly told home to let the guy up and hastily told the boys to hide in her bedroom for just a moment.

"Why? It's not like the guy can see us from here." Raph argued.

"I don't even want to risk it." Holly hissed back.

He still didn't budge. So, she stalked straight at him and grabbed him by the arm again. She spun him on his heal and started shoving him with all her strength. Mikey chuckled as he too was ushered into the other room. Holly marched him into her room, spun him back around to face her and poked him right in the plastron.

"Stay here, or suffer the consequences." She gave him one last shove to make her point and glared at him as she backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

"Do you have to be difficult all the time?" Leo asked exasperatedly.

"I kinda' like getting under her skin, she fights back unlike the rest of you." He admitted to them with a shrug.

Out in the hallway, Holly shook her head at April who just grinned back at her. She knew how Raph could get, but he seemed to enjoy rattling Holly more than everyone else. Well, except maybe Mikey.

Holly opened the front door to her apartment, to find a skinny college age kid standing with a big brown bag in his hands. "Here's you food, that will be $74.13 please."

Holly pulled out $85 from her pocket and handed it to the greasy kid. "Keep the change, thank you."

"This seems like a lot of food for two chicks." He looked at them suspiciously.

"Well, this way I have lunch and dinner for tomorrow without having to call you guys again." Holly smiled sweetly at him, and promptly closed the door on him. "Moron" she muttered to herself.

She walked back to the kitchen and placed the large bag on the counter. She almost wanted to start eating without letting the turtles out yet, but she would then be punishing Leo, Donnie and Mikey when it was Raph who really needed the lesson. She would have to think of something that would get him back for this.

April looked up and could almost see the cogs turning in Hollys head. "You want to get him back, don't you?"

"Oh yeah." Holly glanced at the hallway that led to her room.

"I think you and I can come up with something." April nodded encouragingly, and started unloading the containers of food.

Holly walked back to her room and pushed open the door slowly. She noticed that Donnie and Leo looked a little uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" She asked them.

The two turtles looked at each other, "We've never been into anyone else's room before. It just feels kind of invasive." Leo answered.

"Your fine, I have nothing embarrassing in here." She motioned for them to follow her back to the kitchen. Mikey who was sprawled on her bed, jumped up and rushed out to get his food. "Where's Raph?"

"I think he went exploring in your closet." Leo said and pointed at the only other door in the room.

Holly rushed past him and stopped just outside her walk in closet. "Raph?" She called gently.

"Raphael?" She sang his name like a mother would to a child who was hiding.

Leo and Donnie watched her take a step in reaching for the hanging string that would turn on the light.

"You really have a ton of clothes." Raph popped out from between some of the dresses her mother had brought home form somewhere fancy, that she had never worn. Holly jumped and fell over backwards back out of the closet, landing on her butt. She sprang back up and tried to grab him, but he jumped just out of reach. He chuckled to himself and she shoved him out into her room.

"I'm seriously going to get you for this." She stomped after him. From where he was, he couldn't see the smile on her face, but he could certainly hear it.

Leo and Donnie both gave their trouble making brother a look, but let out a sigh of relief seeing that Holly wasn't really mad at him, or them.

They all shared the food between the group, everyone trying some of everything, until everyone was full. There was a little left over, so Holly boxed it up and put in in the fridge for later.

"So? What do you guys think? Pretty good, right?" Holly flopped down onto the couch between April and Leo, grabbing the remote on the way down. She clicked through the channels as they all gave their approval. The decided to watch the new episode of Leo's favorite show, since it was only an hour long, and the turtles would have to go out on patrol soon anyway. Raph, did grumble a little but a death glare from Holly shut him up pretty quickly. He was pushing his luck today. They settled down on the huge squishy couch and put their feet up.

During the show, April kept sneaking a peak over at Raph, she couldn't help but notice that he was spending an awful lot of time looking over at Holly. She couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking, he always kept his feelings bottled up so tight that most of the time she had no idea what was going on inside his head. Of all the turtle boys, he was by far the hardest to get close to. Because he always put up his tough front, no one seemed to be able to get any kind of real emotional response from him.

By the time it was time for the turtles to go, it was just about 9 p.m. and Holly really didn't want them to leave. April's aunt was already on her way over to take her home, and it would only take her ten minutes to get here. The turtles had to be gone before then just incase she wanted to chat for a moment.

"Alright guys, it's time to go." Leo got up and started toward the balcony doors. He opened the curtain just a tiny bit to make sure there was no one around to see them leave.

Donnie and Mikey were standing right behind him waiting for their orders to move. Raph, however, was standing by the girls.

"Shouldn't you be leaving?" Holly asked, blinking at Raph innocently.

"Yeah, but I just wanted to, you know." He scratched his head nervously. As soon as he realized he was doing this, his hand snapped down to his side.

"Nope, I don't have a clue." She crossed her arms and kept an amused, but confused, look on her face.

"I wanted to," he paused and hurriedly muttered "apologize."

"Oh that's what this is. I'm actually kind of surprised that you know what one of those is." She uncrossed her arms and put them on her hips.

He pulled a sarcastic face at her, and she cracked. She laughed at him and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Your lucky I like you, or I may not be so forgiving." She took a step towards him and gently placed a hand on his arm. "Come on, we have to get you guys out of here."

She moved right next to Leo, and slid through the curtains and onward out the doors. A moment later, she poked her head in and whispered that the coast was clear. The boys darted out of the door and hopped onto the railing of the balcony and sprang up to the roof. She watched them disappear over the roof top. For the briefest second, she could have sworn she saw a smile on Raphs face, but he was gone before she could even get in another glimps.

She walked back inside and let out a huge sigh that made her hair flap over her eyes. April laughed as she knew exactly what she was feeling. "I'm starting to wonder if this is more trouble than it's worth." Holly noted. She knew it was, but liked to be a little dramatic every once in a while.

April was hoping that they would get a moment alone. There was something she wanted to ask Holly that would classify as "girl talk". "What do you think of the guys?" she started, keeping it light.

"They are awesome." Holly said with a smile.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh, and what about Raph." April just had to know.

Holly looked at her friend, she knew what she was asking. She wasn't stupid after all. "You want to know if I like him, don't you?" She asked bluntly.

April just shrugged.

Holly shook her head with a smile. "I think he's not as tough as he thinks he is." She answered honestly.

"Meaning?" Pressed April.

"Meaning, that I think he has a softer side that no one really gets to see." She strategically avoided answering, but knew it wouldn't work for long.

"Yeah, I got that. But your not giving me an answer." April stated simply.

"Alright, I do like him, but I don't think it goes past friendship... At least I don't think so." There was no point lying. "I think that we have similar personalities and, I'll admit, that I rather like arguing with him." Holly shrugged, she didn't think it was a big deal. "But will you grant me the same courtesy? What's going on with you and Donnie?"

April had a feeling that this may come up again. She wasn't sure what was going on between her and the tallest of the turtle brothers. She did like him, but she didn't know how deep it went. "I don't know." she finally gave in.

"Looks like we're in the same boat." Holly said, as the intercom buzzed. Holly pushed the talk button, "Yeah?"

"Miss O'Neil is here to pick up her niece." the doorman's voice sounded through the tiny speaker.

"Does she want to come up?" There was a pause.

"No, ma'am. She said she needs to get home."

"Alright, I'll send April down." she let go of the button, but clicked it back on for a second, "and stop calling me that!"

The girls went down to the lobby and Holly exchange pleasantries with Aprils aunt. After a quick conversation the two teens hugged goodbye and Holly watched as her friend drove away.

"It's nice to see you smiling for a change ma'am." The older gentleman commented.

"Thanks bud. Call me Holly, please?" Holly replied.

"Maybe just this once, Holly." he winked at her as the elevator doors closed.

Holly returned to her apartment feeling significantly better than she had in days. She cleaned up the kitchen, grabbed a glass of water, brushed her teeth and climbed into bed. She watched some late night chat show until, her eyelids grew heavy and she finally drifted off to sleep.

April kept quiet most of the way home, she couldn't stop thing about what She and Holly had talked about. She had known for a while that Donnie had a little crush on her, but she never really though about if she reciprocated those feelings. Yes she though about him quite a bit, but she thought about all the turtles all of the time.

April changed into her pajamas and turned on the radio on her night stand, it played music softly and she sat cross-legged on her bed, breathing deeply to clear her mind. After a few moments, she groaned and smushed a pillow into her face. This was hopeless, she just couldn't concentrate right now.

There was a tapping on her window and sure enough there was Donnie, smile plastered on his face, the gap between his teeth ever present. She smiled back at him and walked over to open the window.

"I thought you guys were going on patrol?" She asked.

"We are, we just wanted to stop by and make sure you got home ok." Donnie replied lightly.

"I didn't even walk today, you know I got a ride." She smiled at him.

"I know, but you never know with the Foot or the Kraang." He smiled back at her, a little sheepishly.

"Well, thank you. I appreciate the concern." She reached out and placed her hand on his forearm. He blushed red, and she found that she felt her cheeks burn slightly. She withdrew her hand and reached out for the handle on the window. "Good night Donnie, night guys." she said to the roof.

"Night." He waved at her and sprang back up to the roof. She watched him go before she shut the window quietly.

April sighed, no use trying to meditate now.

I just wanted to add a little note of thanks to everyone who has been so kind with their comments. I appreciate all the feedback and am glad that your enjoying my story!


	7. Chapter 7

The next few weeks flew by, and April and Holly spent most of their free time together or with the turtles. The walked home from school together and usually stayed at each others houses on the weekends. The girls had become close friends and knew most everything about each other, Holly had even let April raid her closet full of unworn clothes and given her half of the stuff her mother kept bringing home.

The season had started changing, the cool spring had turned into a hot and muggy summer. All the people on the streets were being particularly horrible to one another as they tried to continue with their lives through the sweltering heat. April and Holly were walking toward the lair, the sun was starting to go down and the whole city was bathed in a soft orange glow.

"I love summer." Said April with a sigh. "It makes everything so pretty."

Holly nodded, she liked summer too, but her glasses made it hard to appreciate it sometimes. She took them off her face and wiped the sweat off her nose, then ran her hand through her hair, trying to get some relief from the heat. Holly placed her glasses back onto her face, and immediately walked into April who had stopped in the middle of the side walk.

"Hey," she said, grabbing at her glasses so they didn't fall off her face." Why'd you stop?"

April didn't answer, she just pressed a finger to her lips then pointed around the corner into the alley way they were just about to walk past. Holly looked at her, then poked her head around Aprils. Being five inches taller than your friend had its benefits.

There in the alley, was a group of guys all dressed in black and purple. They were standing with their backs to a closed door in a little semi-circle, and although their eyes were hidden behind dark sun glasses, even Holly could tell that they were keeping a look out for cops.

Both girls withdrew their heads and looked at each other for a moment.

"I'm assuming you know those guys." Holly said with an overly cheery tone in her voice.

"They're purple dragon, and for some reason they're connected to whatever happened to the turtles."

"Whoa whoa whoa, what?" Holly waved her hands in the air trying to sort things out in her head.

"They've been around a few times when the turtles have been doing some investigating into their past." April rushed through her sentence and instantly had her eyes peeking out around the corner again.

"So what? Your going to stalk them now?" Holly was still confused, she should talk to Donnie about this.

"Yeah, pretty much. I need you to go get the boys while I follow them and find out where they're going." April said nonchalantly.

Holly was staring at the back of her friends head in utter disbelief. "Oh yeah, that sounds just great."

"I'm serious, get going!" April shoved Holly in the general direction of the lair, then started to creep down the ally to hide behind a dumpster.

Holly stood dumbfounded. She knew the turtles were trained to deal with this kind of situation, she had watched them practice a few times. But April was a different story, they were sixteen for heavens sake. However, without wasting another minute, Holly turned and ran as fast as her feet could carry her.

Leo was pissed. Raph was not doing his drills properly and he was becoming agitated since he wanted to goof off and read comics.

"If you just do it right the first time we wouldn't have to keep doing them." Leo snapped.

"We've been doing them for two hours! I did them right for the first hour and a half, the last half an hour has been pointless!" Raph yelled back.

"No, the last half an hour has been you intentionally being an ass!" Leo stood up and glared at his immediate younger brother. Who in turn, jumped up and stared right back.

"Would you guys cut that out, the sooner we get done the sooner we can hang out with April and Holly." Donnie stepped between them and pushed them apart.

Their little argument was interrupted buy a loud crashing sound coming from the vicinity of the lairs entrance. The turtle boys all looked at each other and rushed out to see what was going on. They saw Holly, doubled over breathing quite heavily, clutching onto turn style for dear life. Her backpack had ripped open and it's contents was sprawled across the floor.

"Holy cow, what happened to you?" Mikey asked and grasped her by the elbow so she could regain her balance.

"Thanks... Nearly fell... On my face." Holly managed between breaths.

"Hey, where's April?" asked Donnie growing more concerned by the second.

"She saw some purple something guys standing by a door and told me to come get you." Holly said extremely quickly.

"Ok, so where is she?" Asked Raph.

"She decided to follow them, hence why I sprinted through the sewers to get here."

Leo instantly went into leadership mode. "Ok guys, we need to get to her as soon as possible. Where we're you when you saw them?"

"We were walking past the alley thats right next to the pizza shop on 173rd." She looked them over quickly, they all looked so serious. She had to admit, she was worried about April.

"Ok guys, let's go." Leo shouted, and all four of the turtles stated for the entryway.

"What can I do?" Holly shouted after them.

Raph stopped for a moment and turned to her. "Just stay here, you could do some cleaning while your here though."

Holly stomped her foot and would have thrown something at his head if something had been within reach. He just winked and her and took off after his brothers.

Raph caught up with the others just outside of the lair. They climbed onto the roof of the nearest building and set off in the direction Holly had told them to go. Donnie was beside himself with worry, he didn't know what state they would find April in but he kept envisioning terrible things. They all leapt from building to building as quickly as they could, until finally they reached the roof top of the pizza joint. Donatello held his breath and peeked over the side of the building.

"I don't see her." He whispered to the others. He started to panic.

"She can't have gone far, everyone take a direction and fan out." Leo said.

The boys split up keeping an eye out for their friend. Donnie hopped over to the next building and scanned the street and alleys for any sign of her. He stepped around a roof access and looked over the ledge. He saw her crouching on the fire escape watching a group of purple dragons making their way through the scuzzy back streets of the city. He let out a sigh and motioned for his brothers that he had found her.

He silently lowered himself down to the escape and noiselessly climbed lower to sit next to her.

"You guys got here quick." April whispered.

"Apparently Holly sprinted." He replied, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I saw them guarding a door in the other ally and figured they were up to something, so I followed them." She looked up into his concerned brown eyes. "I'm fine, they haven't seen me." she reassured him.

"Alright. Have they done anything else since then?"

"Not really, one of them came out of the door with a box and now his in there," She pointed at the goons guarding another door, "But I don't know why."

"Ok, you and Donnie stay here. Mikey take the building to the left. Raph and I will try getting inside for a closer look." Leonardo and the rest or the turtles has scrambled down to listen to April with out making a sound, but now there was work to do. Donnie and April climbed back up to the roof top, so that if one of the goons were to look up, they wouldn't be out in the open. Mikey had leapt over to the another building for additional coverage while Leo and Raph launched themselves across the alley to the building the purple dragons were now occupying.

The two eldest turtle brothers opened one of the sky lights and dropped down onto one of the metal beams.

"Just put it over there!"

"Alright, gees!"

Leo and Raph looked at each other, they could just see the shapes of a few purple dragon members walking around the warehouse below. There was a crashing sound as one of the muscle heads dropped a stack of boxes. A wave of computer chips skidded across every inch of the warehouse floor.

"You moron! Pick that up!" A tall, skinny Asian guy yelled. "Stockman is going to be pissed if those get broken."

Leo mouthed "Stockman?" at Raph, who just shrugged.

"I know already, it was an accident." A big stocky guy said.

"Yeah we'll we don't get paid if this shit's broken!" The Asian guy yelled again.

Leo had heard enough, he motioned for Raph to go back up and out. They needed to get some info on this Stockman guy if they were going to find out why he had hired the purple dragons.

They crept back outside and motioned for the others to meet them on the roof of the building they had started on. Once they were gathered together again, Leo quickly briefed them on what they had heard and seen.

"Stockman, as in Baxter Stockman?" Donnie asked.

"I don't know, they never said a first name." Leo said.

"Well if he's after computer chips I wouldn't be surprised if it was him, he is a computer genius." Donnie swooned.

"Yeah, but if he's working with the purple dragons then he's bad news." Mikey reminded him.

"Anyway, let's get back to the lair. I'm sure Hollys really steaming by now." Raph smirked.

"Oh god, what did you do?" Leo asked.

"Nothing much, I just told her to tidy up while she was waiting." Raph chuckled.

"Dude, not cool." Mikey said.

Holly was fuming, how dare he say a thing like that when April may be in trouble. She already felt useless compared to everyone else, like he needed to pour salt into the wound. She wanted to throw something, preferable at Raphs face, but a wall might just work too.

She cried out in frustration and ran her hand through her hair again.

"You seem agitated, tell me what's wrong." Master Splinter had calmly walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I feel so useless, and Raphael is being a jerk." She looked up into the old rats eyes, "Sorry."

"It's ok, he enjoys winding you up, but he can be a little insensitive at times." The rat stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"I just..." She started, but really couldn't put it into words.

"It's ok, I understand. Come with me, I seem to recall you saying you were good with a bow."

Holly followed Splinter into the training room, she looked at him and back into the room. Everything looked as it always did, the red floor mats were clean, and the weapon rack was fully stocked with the usual assortment of goodies.

Splinter pulled an wooden bow off the rack and a quiver of arrows. "I always find doing damage to inanimate objects cures pent up anger." Splinter handed her the bow.

Holly smiled slightly as she remembered the last time she was with her dad, they had gone hunting and she had shot her first deer. Her dad had field dressed it, and when they got home they had a huge meal and invited all the other families to come over and share their venison. They never wasted any of the deer in their town. It was the only way Holly could hunt, knowing that the animal had not died in vein. In celebration, her dad had bought her a brand new bow which was now safely tucked away in here bedroom.

Master Splinter handed her some targets and instructed her to stand them at one end of the room, he then settled himself on the floor to watch.

Holly took a deep breath calming herself. She drew back an arrow to her cheek, took a breath in, took aim, released the breath and let the arrow fly.

April and the turtles walked into the lair after dark. April felt kind of bad leaving Holly hear but she didn't want to see her friend hurt. They all looked around the living room, but didn't see Holly anywhere.

"Do you guys hear that? Or am I imagining things again?" Mikey said. They all stopped and stood perfectly still for a moment, they heard a soft thudding sound coming from the training room. They all looked at each other with confused looks and then hurried off to see what was going on.

They saw Holly stood with her back to them, she had a bow and arrow in her hands. They heard her take a deep inhale as she raised the bow up and drew back the string. Then she exhaled slowly and sudden let the arrow go. It whizzed through the air with a slight whistle and then thunked into one of the four targets set up at the other end of the room.

"Wow, your a good shot." Leo commented and walked into the room. He saw master splinter sitting peacefully on the other side of the room, watching Holly let off some steam.

"There's no real challenge in here though, there's no wind to account for." She didn't even look back at them, just loaded another arrow and took another breath. Whoosh, thunk. They all looked at Raph.

"Don't worry, I'm not mad." Holly said, "Anymore." She added to herself and let another arrow go.

Holly had ran out of arrows, so she set the bow down and walked to the far side of the room to retrieve them from the targets. Raph stepped towards her, but turned back and motioned to the others that he wanted them to leave.

Leo and Mikey just shook their heads smirking. It had been a while since anyone had put Raph in his place. Unfortunately for them April grabbed them by the elbow and marched them out of the room. Master Splinter also got up to leave, he hoped that his son had the sense to stay calm. He was a man once, he knew that there was nothing scarier that an angry woman.

Raph didn't say anything for a moment, he hadn't thought his comment would get her this mad. He just watched her pull back on the bow, take a breath, then let the arrow go. "I didn't mean anything by that you know."

"I know." She didn't look at him.

Raph felt so awkward, he had never really had to apologize for running his mouth before. He actually felt bad that he may have hurt this girls feelings. He liked her, she had the same sense of humor that he did, and she was smart. But maybe he had gone too far?

"Do you think I'm useless?" Holly asked suddenly.

"What? No, not at all. Why do you ask?" Raph was frowning at the back of Hollys head, not really sure where she was going with this.

"April has a cell phone, she could have called you guys." Holly said simply.

"Oh." So that's what was up. "You do know that she doesn't think your useless."

"I do, I'm intelligent enough to realize that she was more interested in my safety. Plus she's my friend, we don't need to compete to prove anything to each other."

"Then what's the big deal?" Raph asked.

Holly sighed, "I just feel like I'm in the way." She turned to face him for the first time. She looked so sad.

"Your totally crazy, you know that?" She frowned at him, but didn't interrupt. "It doesn't matter what you can't do, we care about you because of the things you can do. Your smart and funny and one of the best friends we could ask for." He was staring so intensely at her, and he sounded so honest. She couldn't help but smile. "Beside," he added, "I don't even think that Leo is that good of a shot." He pointed at the targets.

She chuckled lightly, and gave him a playful shove. "Well, I have been using one of these for the last 10 years. Although, mine is a little more sophisticated." She turned to take another shot, but felt his hand grip here arm lightly. He pulled gently until she was facing him completely.

"Are you really ok?" He looked concerned, but determined. Without warning, she stepped towards him and put her arms around his neck. He jumped slightly, but eventually wrapped an arm around her waist and patted her back softly.

"Yeah, I'm ok. Thanks Raph." She stepped back away from him, and moved back into position to continue shooting the targets. "Oh, but your not off the hook for the "you should tidy up" comment. I almost took you comics and used them for target practice."


	8. Chapter 8

Mikey was trying to hear what was going on in the training room. April had dragged the boys out to the living room to give Raph a chance to apologize to Holly, but he really wanted to see Raph get his butt handed to him.

"Michelangelo, your brother is dealing with a delicate situation. You should respect his privacy." Splinter said over a steaming cup of tea.

"I know, but I really want to see him suffer." he pouted and sat cross legged on the floor outside the training room door.

"I feel really bad you guys." April looked around at the three turtles and their master, "Do your think she'll be mad at me?"

"I wouldn't worry too much, Holly's not the kind of person to stay angry." Donnie said, trying to sound reassuring.

"Oh that makes me feel so much better." April snapped, voice dripping with sarcasm. Donnie gave her a grimace

"I would be more worried if I were Raph," Leo said, "He's the one who is constantly pushing her buttons." He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"Why did we leave those two alone again?" April asked.

Mikey laughed to himself, and was about to try eaves dropping again when the door slid open and Holly almost tripped over the turtle in orange. Raph grabbed the back of her belt and pulled just before she fell onto Mikey. She felt the tug on her jeans, which pulled her back upright, and further back the other way. Her reactions made her grab for the frame of the door, but she ended up being supported by one of Raphs arms.

"Nice catch." She said as he popped her upright again.

"Don't mention it." He said giving her a grin. He then gave Mikey a suspicious glare.

"Holly."April jumped up and ran to her best friend. "Are you ok? Are you mad at me?"

"No, not at all." Holly said giving the other girl a hug. "I was just being stupid."

April hugged Holly again, but this time Mikey jumped up and grabbed the two girls squishing them in a bone crushing embrace. "I'm so glad were all friends again!" he yelled.

"Ok, ok." Holly managed to croak out. Mikey let go and she, and April, sucked down huge lungs full of air.

Once everyone was happily seated in the living room, they filled Holly in on what they had discovered. Including that the purple dragons were working for Stockman, and that they were stealing computer parts from anywhere they could get them.

"Stockman? That sounds so far familiar." Holly said, brows knitted together in thought.

"Well, we think it's a guy named Baxter Stockman." Said Donnie, "He is well known for his unbelievable contribution to the robotics community. Last I heard he was trying to create some kind of intelligent robot interface, it was supposed to be super classified so there's not much information available."

"No, I mean that I know that name." She has shaking her head trying to force her brain to remember. "This is going to drive me nuts, I hate when I can remember things."

Raph was sitting on the couch next to Holly with spike on his shoulder. He had a couple lettuce leafs to feed his little buddy sitting on a paper towel in between himself and the girl in the spectacles. "If you don't think about it, you'll remember." He said waggling one of the vegetable pieces in front of her. She snatched it from him, and offered it to spike.

"He is cute." She said, gently rubbing the little turtles head as he munched on his dinner.

"He's not cute! He's manly." Raph said swatting her hand away.

"Yeah you keep telling your self that." She chuckled.

"If this Stockman guy is supposed to be so smart, why would he be stealing computer parts?" Leo asked the group.

"Maybe he ran just ran out of spare parts?" Mikey offered.

"Don't be ridiculous Mikey." Donnie scoffed, "He makes his own parts, he's not going to run out."

"Not unless he needs a lots of compute parts exceptionally quickly." Master Splinter chimed in.

Everyone was silent, Master Splinter was probably right. It's not like Stockman had a whole factory at his disposal. He probably had to buy his materials just like everybody else.

"I suppose if he was the only one who knew exactly what he needed to do, it would be much simpler and cheaper to steal the components rather than make them." Donnie shrugged.

"But what could he be making that requires that many components?" Holly added.

Everyone was silent again. The only one who could even take a guess would be Donatello, but he didn't seem to have any idea either. The little group sat around for a while not really talking or doing much. Mikey had gotten bored and was playing a video game on one of his hand held devices, while April had pulled a magazine out of her back pack. Leo and Donnie had moved into the kitchen and were still discussing the Purple Dragon issue from earlier. Raph had grabbed one of his comics and was clearly wrapped up in the action. Holly had taken to feeding spike, who was now in her lap. She had grabbed him a chunk of cucumber and was holding it steady so the little turtle could eat as much as he wanted.

She was watching him slowly chomp down on another juicy section, she smiled softly as spike started to get feisty. Well, as feisty as a normal, non-mutated, turtle can get. She placed him on the couch and let him stretch his legs, making sure he didn't fall off the edge.

Raph looked over the top of his comic at Holly, she was smiling down at spike and was letting him run around on the couch. He watched her gently nudge spike away from the edge of the couch if he ever strayed too close, he couldn't help but smile behind his comic. She was so caring.

April had thrown her magazine aside for now, she was now sitting behind Mikey watching him play his game. "No, not like that. You have to jump, then attack." April was trying to help him beat one of the bosses.

"I play this all day long, I think I know what I'm doing." He replied, he stuck his tongue out at her over his shoulder, only to hear the typical "game over" sound come from the small speakers.

"Awe man." He dropped his chin to his chest. "You distracted me." He turned to April.

"Why don't you play an old side scroller that you can play together?" Holly asked.

"What's that?" asked Mikey.

"You don't have any side scrolling games? They're the best." April said enthusiastically.

"I have an old console at home, I'll dig it out tonight and bring it over with all my old games tomorrow." Holly offered.

"Really?" Mikey shuffled over to her on his knees with the biggest smile on his face. He looked like one of those creepy Japanese cartoons where the characters facial features were way too big for their face.

"Yes, but only if you stop making that face." she scooted away from him slightly and bumped into Raph. She looked at the older turtle brother and grabbed his arm, "What's wrong with him?"

"You just told him your going to bring him new video games. What did you expect?" Raph raised his non-existent eye brow at her.

Holly looked back at Mikey, his grin was even bigger and it wax creeping her out. "Im not kidding, cut that out!" she hopped up and jumped over the back of the couch.

Mikey vaulted the couch and practically tackled Holly, he grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her into the air, he spun around squishing her and making her nauseous at the same time. He span so fast that her glasses were thrown half way across the room. Luckily enough, Leo and Donnie had emerged from the kitchen, and Leo's ninja reflexes caught her glasses before they hit the floor and shattered.

"Mikey, put her down." Leo yelled.

Mikey pouted, but placed Holly gently on back on solid ground. Unfortunately, he had spun her so fast that she instantly dropped to her knees and grasped her head to try and stop it from spinning.

"I think I'm going to hurl." She said. Leo walked over to her and gave her back glasses.

"Are you alright?" Leo asked.

"Yup, just leave me here for a minute and I'll be fine." She kept her eyes shut. Leo glared at Mikey, his brother really could be an idiot sometimes.

Raph smacked Mikey on the back of the head with a rolled up comic book, while Donnie and April just chuckled form the other side of the room.

After a few moments, Holly looked up and took a nice deep breath, "Ok I feel better, but I think it's about time I head home." She checked her watch, "Oh crap."

"What's up?"

"I was supposed to be home a half an hour ago. If moms there she'll kill me." she jumped up, a little too quickly and swayed slightly.

"You won't make it home for another hour yet if your walking." April said.

"I'll just call a cab or something." She gathered up her belongings and stuffed them back into her ruined bag, after waving a quick good bye to everyone she raced out of the lair and back up to the street.

"I'm uh, I'm just going to make sure she gets in a cab safely. I'll be right back." Raph ran out of the lair after Holy.

The others waited until they knew Raph wouldn't hear them, and Leo, Donnie and April burst into laughter. Mikey just sat on the floor, looking lost.

"What?" He said to the others. They just looked at him.

"It's funny watching him try and keep up the tough guy routine." April said, trying to keep a straight face. "I feel bad for laughing since it is kind of sweet, but this is Raph were talking about."

"He's almost as bad as someone else I know." Leo said giving Donnie a sly wink. Donatello blushed.

"Wait a second?" Mikey said slowly. "Does Raph like Holly?"

Leo, Donnie and April all looked at each other, and the burst into laughter again.

"Well, anyway, what's our next mover to find Stockman?" April asked. Still chuckling slightly.

"Unfortunately we really don't have a good lead to follow. I guess the best thing we can do is try and follow some purple dragon goons until they lead us to him." Leo shrugged.

"We can at least start at the fortune cookie factory. We know the purple dragons use that as their base of operations, and we know they're using that wear-house to store the stolen goods." April added, "Plus, Holly and I can keep an eye out for them during the day."

"Its too dangerous for you guys to be following them around, next time you find them just call us." Leo told her.

April frowned. "You guys can't go out during the day or you'll get caught. So that only leaves the two of us."

"You have only been training for a few months, and Holly hasn't had any training at all! What would you do if they caught you?" Donnie said.

"We'll be careful." April said, as if it were no big deal. "And it's not like I'm going to try fighting them, I know I can't do that."

"I just don't like it." Leo finalized.

"I don't know why you both aren't just training with us." Mikey said. "I mean, we need you guys and I don't want to see you get hurt, so you may as well learn to defend yourself."

"You bring up a good point, my son." Splinter had appeared by his door, apparently he had heard their little heated debate.

"Well, its true. They're probably going to get into some kind of trouble sooner or later." Mikey stood up tall, he held his shoulders back and was determined to prove his point.

"Perhaps I should help you two to be better prepared. We are dealing with some dangerous people after all." Master Splinter stroked his whiskers as he made his way to the kitchen. He returned a moment later with another steaming mug. "I shall meditate on this issue for now. I suggest you all get some rest, it is getting late."

"He's right, it's no use getting worked up right now." Leo stretched up and then flopped down onto the couch.

April was excited, she had only had a few sessions with splinter but they had already saved her neck on more than one occasion. She had been trying to help the turtles whenever she could, finding any information and pointing them in the right direction when she was able. It would be easier if she didn't have to do it alone.

Raph had to sprint to catch up with Holly. It didn't take long though, he heard her drop all her belongings and groan in frustration just ahead. He rounded a corner of the sewers and there she was, crouching to pick up books, pens and pencils, and other miscellaneous stuff.

"Smooth." He said, leaning against the wall crossing his arms.

"Your such a big help." She kept grabbing her belongings off the floor. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and waved it around trying to get a signal. She was going to try calling home to see if her mom was there, and if she was, apologize for being late. "Gah, this thing is junk." she stuffed it back in her pocket.

Holly stood up, clutching her things tightly trying not to drop them again. She set off without warning, causing Raph to have to jog to catch her again. "What are you doing?" She asked him.

"What? I can't make sure your ok?" He replied, almost sounding hurt.

"Ok, I didn't mean it like that." She said, "I know my way back to the surface by now, and I am perfectly capable of calling a cab." She looked over at him, his face was stoic. She remained silent for a moment, but decided to move conversation onward. "So, I should thank you again. What you said earlier, it was nice." she tried to sound aloof, but she knew that what he had said had moved her.

"Don't mention it." He looked at her for just a second. "I'm serious, I don't want to loose me reputation."

She chuckled, "Oh god. You and your rep." She shook her head at him. She shifted the belongings in her arms to get at her phone again, she managed to wiggle it out and checked the signal strength. She had two bars.

"Yes!" She quickly punched in her apartments number and waited for an answer. Nothing, it just kept ringing and went to voice mail. She didn't bother leaving a message, if her mom wasn't home by now she probably wasn't going to be at all. Holy would bet that there would be a post-it stuck to the fridge letting her know where her mother would be that night. Holly let out a big sigh, half out of relief, and half out of disappointment.

"So ma's not home again, is she?" Raph asked her. She just shook her head and set off toward the surface again. Raph wanted to reach out to her, he could see the hurt in the way she held herself. He couldn't even imagine how she must feel. "You know, if you really want, you could stay with us. I mean, if you don't want to go home to an empty house." He stumbled over the words, silently cursing himself.

"I would really like that, but I should go home tonight. It's been a long day." She smiled gently at him. A nervous silence fell between the two teens as they continued walking across the damp bricks.

Raphs mind was racing, why had he asked that? It was stupid, she wouldn't want to stay in the sewer, it wasn't a place for a teenage girl to be. But she had said she would like to, she didn't have anyone at home to keep her company, or make her laugh.

They reached the access to the street and Raph climbed up first, carrying her broken bag since she wouldn't be able to herself. He shrank into the shadows and stayed close while she hailed a cab down. One pulled up and the driver rolled down his window, asking if she had money to pay the fair. After she pulled out a couple of bills he agreed to give her a ride. Raphael watched as Holly grabbed her bag off the floor and climbed into the back seat, she looked back at him as she closed the door and smiled as they pulled away.

April was almost asleep on the couch in the lair by the time Raph made it back. Donnie was reading and Mikey was rummaging through the fridge. Leo was watching the television quietly, so as not to disturb either Donnie or April.

"Is she planning on staying the night?" Raph pointed at April.

"Apparently." replied Donnie.

"I told my aunt I might stay out tonight, I called her a little while ago to let her know I am going to." She didn't even open her eyes and her breathing was getting deeper.

"And you have no problem being in the sewer?" Raph asked hesitantly, recalling the conversation he had just had.

"No." She breathed.

Raph dropped into an empty chair and sighed. He was exhausted, it really had been a long day.

All at once, all of the turtles phones, and Aprils, went off at once. April fished hers out of her pocket without looking and cracked one eye open as she read the text message she had received. She sat upright, eyes widening as she read it again.

"Did you guys just get a message from Holly?" Mikey stuck his head around the pillar with a piece of pizza hanging out of his mouth.

The group nodded. "I found Stockman" Was all the message said.


	9. Chapter 9

Holly rode home in the back of the cab in silence. The cabbie had tried asking her why she was out so late but she just wasn't in the mood for talking. She'd have to give him a decent tip to make up for her rudeness. She stared out the window as the city lights whizzed by, but again she couldn't focus on anything in particular. She kept going over the days events in her head, she had felt so bad about herself earlier. But Raph had looked her in the eye and told her that she was being ridiculous and she had felt better, she had never really felt accepted before. Her mom was always trying to dress her up like a doll, and she barely spoke to her dad anymore.

The cab pulled up to her building and she handed the cabbie forty dollars, the fair was only $24. She walked up to the front doors and waited for the door man to come and let her in, she glanced around and noticed the list of tenants in her building. She skimmed over it but did a double take when she saw one name in particular. It read "Stockman". No way, that would be too easy.

Bud unlocked the door and moved aside to let her in. Holly looked at him, and back at the name on the brass plaque. "Hey Bud, Do you know who this guy is?" She pointed at the name plate.

"Oh yeah, Baxter Stockman, he lives on the floor below yours." He smiled down at the young girl. "Well, I say "lives" but not really." He added.

"What do you mean?" She looked at the aging man with confusion written all over her face.

He chuckled, "Well, he pays his rent but he is hardly ever here."

"Oh." was all she said, she walked as calmly as she could to the elevator and waved at Bud as the doors closed. As soon as she was moving upward, she pulled out her phone and sent a mass text to the others, just incase someone was asleep or away from their phone.

As she opened the door to her apartment, she heard her phone ring. She dumped her belongings on the couch, and answered the call.

"What do you mean you found Stockman?" Leo's voice came through the tiny speaker by her ear.

"Hold on a sec, I need to check and see if my mom is home." She ran through her apartment checking every room, she pushed her mothers bedroom door open wide making sure she wasn't sleeping. "Ok I'm good, and I mean what I said. I know where we can find Stockman, at least at some point."

"Your just confusing us now." Leo said. She must be on speaker phone.

"It turns out that Baxter Stockman is my neighbor. He has an apartment here, but apparently he doesn't come home much." She walked into her kitchen and sure enough there was a note saying that her mom was going to stay at her office because of some fashion emergency.

"So when will he be back?" Leo asked.

"No idea, the doorman said he's rarely home." Holly looked through her fridge for anything appetizing. She found a yoghurt and fished a spoon out of the draw.

"Then what do we do from here? Wait for him to get home and then follow him?" Donnie's voice was the one to speak this time.

"Actually I was thinking more along the line of breaking in and snooping around." She said brightly.

"You can't do that!" Raph practically shouted.

"Well I was planning to wait for you guys to get here so I can let you in too." Holly snapped back.

"You want to do this tonight?" Leo scoffed.

"Yeah why not?" Holly asked.

"Well for one thing, it's after midnight. And April was just about to fall asleep, and we'll all need our strength to make sure we can handle any trouble that might show up." Leo reasoned. Holly didn't answer right away, she knew he was right.

"Alright, fine. If my mom is going to be gone again tomorrow you can come here while April and I get into his apartment." Holly Huffed.

"Ok, well text us tomorrow so we can make a plan of action. See you tomorrow." Leo said.

"Yeah, see you." Holly sighed. She was so excited that she forgot how tired she was.

Leo hung up the phone and looked at Donnie. "Please tell me you have a gadget that will help us get into the apartment?"

"I may have a lock picking set stashed away somewhere." He grinned, smugly.

"Alright, everyone should head to bed. I want to make sure we have everything we could need and I want you girls to keep a look out around the apartments for signs of Stockman." Leo first looked at his brothers, and then he nodded at April.

"Sure thing boss." April said, she stretched up with a huge yawn, and then flopped down onto the couch. "You don't have a spare pillow and blanket lying around do you?"

"I'll get them for you." Donnie sprang up and ran to find something April could sleep with. "If you want you can sleep in my room and I'll take the couch?"

"Nah, I'm good here." She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes again. "If I fall asleep, I'll see you guys in the morning." Not five minutes later, she was out for the count. The turtles retired to their own rooms, giving April some peace and getting some rest of their own.

The following morning, April woke up on the couch in the lair. It had been kind of nice staying with the turtles. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, did she smell coffee? As she walked into the kitchen, red hair sticking out at weird angles, she saw Master Splinter sitting at the rough old table sipping out of a little cup, he was reading an old looking book.

"Good morning Master." April greeted the old rat. "Interesting book?"

"Ah, good morning miss O'Neil." He put his cup down on the table and turned the book over to show her the cover. "It's a collection of old folk stories told through out Japan."

"Cool, it looks like you could do with a new copy though." April pointed at the book. Its cover was faded and grubby and some of the pages were falling out. "Is that coffee pretty fresh?"

"I don't drink it, but Donatello and Raphael have a taste for it. I make a pot every morning before they get up." The old rat winked at her, and not a moment too soon. As soon as he had finished talking Raph slouched through the archway, heading straight for the coffee pot.

"Good morning my son." Master Splinter said, with a grin on his face. Raph just grunted in response.

April laughed. "Oh, I'm so glad I don't have to deal with you every morning." April said. Again Raph didn't actually respond, he just glared at her over the top of the mug he had just poured for himself.

Soon, all the turtle boys were up. Naturally Mikey was the last to awaken, and to April's surprise, he acted much like Raphael had. Except all he needed was some breakfast, and he was back to his hyperactive self.

The little group of friends sat around eating breakfast and talking about random things. Master Splint remained mostly silent listening to their conversations, until the topic of training came up. Leonardo wanted the boys to practice today since they had slacked off the day before. April was also getting a little impatient, she hadn't had a training session in almost three weeks.

"Oh, I have decided that, if Holly wishes, I will train her along with you April." Splinter said to the young girl.

"Fantastic!" April shouted, "I'm going to text her right now!" April jumped up and ran to fish her phone out of her bag.

"Is that really such a good idea?" Raph asked.

"What makes you say that? I thought you liked Holly?" Donnie said, suspicion written all over his face.

"I do like her." He said.

"So, you don't have confidence in her abilities?" Leo added crossing his arms.

"Of course I do!" Raph snapped back.

"So what's the deal bro?" Mikey joined in the grilling, he loved winding Raph up.

"Forget it! Never mind!" Raph yelled this time. He stomped out of the kitchen muttering to himself, he slammed the door to the training room shut and some rather angry sounds came floating out to the rest of the family.

"What was that about?" April asked as she returned to the kitchen.

"Raph's worried about Holly." Leo chuckled.

"So?" April asked with a shrug.

"We have to give him a hard time." Mikey was giddy with joy. He didn't get the opportunity to poke fun at their overly sensitive brother, this was going to be so much fun.

"What did Holly say?" Donatello steered conversation off topic, it wouldn't be long before Leo and Mikey started making fun of him since he was in the same predicament.

"Oh, she didn't sound very excited, she kept asking if Master Splinter was sure he wanted to train her." April frowned, she was worried about her friend.

"I'm sure she'll be just fine. Besides, she has to have some skill to shoot like she does." Donnie put a hand on Aprils shoulder. She reached up and placed her own on his gently, giving it a quick squeeze of thanks.

"We had better get into the training room before Raph breaks everything in there. Besides, we slacked off yesterday, so it time to get back to work." Leo announced. Mikey groaned, he liked slacking off.

"Let me go change, and I'll join you." April said.

Holly was a little worried, Splinter had said she might be able to train with April, but now that he had agreed to teach her, she wasn't so confident anymore. She was pretty active and didn't have any problems in gym class, but that was nothing compared to the turtles. Even April could out run her in class. Plus, with her glasses, no one would take her seriously. Her eyesight wasn't that bad, at a distance things just got blurry. Her mom had tried to get her to wear contacts, but she didn't really like them.

After a quick shower and changing, Holly decided it was time to call her mom. She dialed her moms cell phone number and waited for an answer.

"Holly? Is that you?" Her mom said sounded ecstatic.

"Hi mom, how's it going?"

"Just fine darling, we managed to get the new line ready just in time to send it out to the manufacturer so thats one crisis averted." She chuckled into the phone.

"Well thank goodness," Holly tried to care, she really did, "are you coming home today?"

"I wish I could sweetie, but I have to make sure the presentations are ready for my conference next week, I'll be staying with Julie tonight and tomorrow, but I promise that I'll be home Monday to see you. Are you at school this week?"

The rest of the conversation revolved around Holly and her school. Holly couldn't really complain, her mother did care. They always caught up on how she was doing even if they couldn't actually see each other, and her mom always made sure she was doing ok and that she was safe. Holly just wished she could actually be home once in a while.

Holly hung up after an hour and immediately texted April. They would have all of the weekend to snoop around Stockmans place. April sent her a message back asking if she was going to head over to the lair while they waited for it to get dark. Holly figured why not? There was nothing keeping her at home now.

She gathered up some spare clothes, just incase, and stuffed them into one of her spare bags. She also grabbed her phone, her wallet and her mp3 player, it was too nice out to take a cab. Just before she left, Holly remembered she had promised Mikey some games. She grabbed the box out of her closet that had her console and games in it and stuffed it in the bag with her clothes. Holly waved at the day doorman as she left and set off towards the turtles home.

An hour later, Holly walked through the entrance to the lair. She had stopped off and picked up some groceries for the boys, and some specialty tea for Master Splinter.

"Hello?" She called out taking her ear buds out of her head. She could hear a training session in progress so decided to wait for the rest of the gang to finish up, she didn't want to disturb them.

Holly sat on the couch and waited for another twenty minutes before the door slid open revealing the turtle brothers joking and shoving each other playfully. Holly stood to greet them.

"Hey guys." She smiled at them, then frowned. "Where's April?"

"Just started training, you could probably join her if you like." Leo pointed over his shoulder.

"Uh," she shoved her hands in her pockets, " I... I think..."

"Holly's here!" Raph yelled at the top of his lungs. April slid the door open after a few moments and beckoned her in.

"You suck." Holly directed at him as she slowly made her way over to the training room. Raph just grinned smugly before turning toward the kitchen.

"Hey April," Holly said quietly.

"Come join me, we literally just started!" April was beaming.

"I don't know." She replied even quieter.

The door opened a little more, and Splinter stood tall next to April. "Come in, your just in time. You should probably change first though."

"H... How did you know I'd..." She was cut off by the old rat chuckling.

"I knew you couldn't resist. You are just as curious as Donatello and just a feisty as Raphael." Holly let a smile creep onto her face. Without another word she ran over to her bag and grabbed her clothes.

Training was intense, Holly had never worked so hard in her life. Both girls were sweating profusely after just a half an hour of working out. They started with a quick warm up and moved straight into strength training, they did push ups and sit ups, bicycle kicks and squats. From there they moved onto the most basic of moves, focusing mostly on form over function.

"Developing muscle memory is more important right now, effectiveness will come later." Master splinter said to them at the end of their session.

"Hai sense." The girls replied.

"Very good work, both of you." He smiled at them, "You have worked hard today, I'll expect you back here tomorrow if you are able."

"My moms not going to be home until Monday." Holly looked at April.

"I doubt my aunt will be mad if I'm out during the day. It just means I'm not slouching around the house." April shrugged.

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow." Splinter turned towards his bedroom.

"Oh, Master Splinter, I bought you some more tea. I noticed yesterday you were almost out." Holly said quickly.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." He smiled at them, "Now go relax for a while, you'll have a busy night tonight."

April stood and stretched, she was wiped. The girls made their way to the door and slid it open giggling about their session. Holly had to admit, it felt good to work hard and she had fun doing it.

"Hey you guys! How'd it go." Mikey yelled at them over the sound of his game.

"Good, it was definitely hard work, but worth it." April said. Holly just nodded.

"Oh," Holly dug through her bag and pulled out the box. "Mikey, here you go." She held out the box at arms length. Mikey peered over his shoulder, then gasped and dashed over to her.

She pulled the box back at the last second, "Ah ah ah. If you want this, you have to swear to never make that face again". She pointed at his face, it was the same creepy look he had yesterday.

"Deal!" he squealed. She handed him the box. Before she had even lowered her arms he was back at the tv trying to hook everything up. She just shook her head.

"Here." Raph handed her some water, she hadn't realized how thirsty she was. She looked at him then back at the glass, she drained it in a few seconds. "Keep drinking that, your going to be sore tomorrow but it's worse if you don't drink."

"Thanks." She finally managed. "I think I could use a shower thought."

He smiled mischievously. "We do have a shower," he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, "But taking a dunk in the pool is far more fun." He dashed over to their clean water access and stood over it ominously.

"If you throw me in there, your in big trouble!" She yelled at him, she wriggled around trying to get out of his grasp. April and Leo had heard the commotion and looked over to see Raph threatening to throw Holly in the water.

"Do it!" April shouted, laughing hysterically.

"She can swim right?" Leo asked. April nodded, still egging Raph on.

"Put me down!" Holly yelled.

"Alright, alright." Raph moved to put her down, but chucked her in anyway.

"She is going to kill you." Mikey said through his laughter. Even Donnie was laughing, but Leo looked worried. Holly hadn't resurfaced yet.

"Where is she?" Leo asked.

Raph stopped laughing slightly and looked into the water, he could see her under the water. She didn't look like she was moving. He leaned over more to make sure and just at that moment, Holly popped up and grabbed him by the shell and pulled with all her strength.

Leo laughed harder than he had in a long time. It seemed that it was Raphs turn to take the plunge. Holly resurfaced again and was laughing so hard she had to grab onto the stone to keep herself afloat. Raph broke the surface too, he didn't look quite as amused anymore, but he was smiling.

"I did warn you." She said between chuckles.

"Alright, I deserved that." he said, swimming over to the side.

Holly hoisted herself out of the water and sat on the side. "Please tell me this isn't sewer water." she rang out her hair and clothes.

"No, it's clean." Donnie assured her.

"Oh good." she sighed. "That was actually quite refreshing."

"Well in that case..." April launched herself over the couch and jumped right into the water. "Cannon ball!"

Everyone laughed. Raph climbed out of the water and sat on the side with Holly.

"I hope you have towels." Holly said as April swam up to them.

"They do, I've showered here before after training sessions." April answered.

Holly got up and walked over to Leo who had just pulled out a towel from their storage space, on her way by she couldn't resist shoving Raph back into the water. Just as a bit of pay back.

Once everyone was dried off and, in the girls case, changed. The group sat around in the kitchen discussing what was going to happen tonight. Donnie had pulled out his lock picking equipment and was showing the girls how to use them.

"The only real issue I see right off the bat is that all the other floors don't have balconies. Your going to have to climb to the window and hope that they open enough for you to get in." Holly said.

"That's not an issue. We can climb just fine." Mikey said.

"It is since you'll have to wait on the roof for our signal. Which means we have to get into the apartment and open the window before you even hear from us." Holly explained.

"Well, not completely. We can keep in contact with our phones." April added, "But we're going to want to stay as quiet as we can so none of the other neighbors find us."

"The best idea I could come up with is that we wait until after ten p.m. when the front doors are locked. Anyone who comes in the building has to wait for the doorman to unlock the door for them, one of you could keep an eye out from the roof top to let us know if someone is coming in the building so we have time to clear out. Then, well find a window and let you guys in."

"That's it?" Raph asked, "It's to vague, there are too many variables."

"I know, but since we have to do this alone we don't have many options." Holly shrugged.

"It's the best we can do for now. Besides, its not like it's completely weird for Holly to walk around her apartment building, she does live there after all." Leo reasoned.

"Alright then, I'll head out earlier so I can see if Bud I working tonight." Holly added as an after thought.

"Who's Bud?" asked Leo.

"He's this really nice guy who works nights, I might be able to ask a favor of him." Holly smiled, why didn't she think of that before?


	10. Chapter 10

Holly and April walked up to the apartment building roughly an hour before the turtles were supposed to show up. Bud was indeed working that night, so Holly decided to try and gain an extra advantage.

"Hey Bud, how's it going tonight?" Holly asked.

"Pretty good, it's been quiet tonight." He replied.

"That's too bad. Do you do anything when it's quiet?" Holly kept buttering him up, not like she really needed to.

"Yeah, I read a lot." He chuckled.

"Hey, could you do me a favor tonight? My mom is friends with the Johnson's on the 7th floor, and while they're away I've been watering their plants and stuff. I was going to decorate before they came home as a surprise, could you let me know if anyone on that floor comes home? I don't want them to ruin the surprise." She gave him her sweetest smile, guilt was tearing her up inside but she hid that.

"Sure, how do you want me to let you know?" he smiled back at her.

"Just give me a quick call so I can make sure it's perfect and that I'm out of there." She scribbled her number down quickly and handed it to him. "Thanks bud, I owe you one."

As the girls entered the elevator, April looked at Holly. "Where did that come from?"

"It's actually mostly true, my mom is friends with the Johnson's who are one the floor below us. And I really am looking after their plants while they're on vacation." Holly shrugged. "I have their key in my kitchen."

April just laughed. They reached Hollys apartment and decided to test their lock picking abilities on the front door, if they could pick that, they should be able to get into Stockmans apartment. Holly tried first, it took a while but she got it eventually. April tried too, and managed it much faster. She practiced for almost the whole hour until she could get the door open in about a minute consistently. So long as there was nothing unusual about this guys apartment they should be able to get in.

There was a tapping on the balcony doors, and April skipped over to them to let the guys in. Again, Raph was the one waiting on the balcony and once April had made sure none of the neighbors were peeking out of their windows, she beckoned the other three down. They stood in Hollys kitchen quickly going over the plan one more time, just to make sure Mikey knew what was going on.

"We should keep in contact the whole way using Aprils phone, I need mine free just incase Bud calls me." Holly waggled her phone around.

"Ok, well lets get going. There's no point waiting any longer." Leo stood up, the other followed suit.

One the turtles were safely back on the roof, Holly and April took the stairs down to the floor below. No one used the stairs here, they were all to busy to take the extra time out of their day. The peeked through the door, making sure the coast was clear, and hurried into the hall way and sped past one apartment after another. After a few seconds they came to Stockmans door.

"Go for it." Holly said, continuing to the corner to make sure no one was standing by the elevators.

April crouched down and inserted the lock pick into the mechanism, she jiggled it around for a moment to no avail. This was tougher than Hollys door, the lock was hardly used so it required more precise positioning to get it open. April wiped her hands on her pants and tried again. This time the lock popped open.

"I'm in," She hissed to Holly, and then more quietly into her cell phone, "We'll see you boys in a moment." she pushed the door open and rushed inside, and as soon as both girls were in the closed the door again. They looked around the apartment and quickly opened a window and pulled out the mesh screen that kept out bugs, not a moment later, the four turtles were standing right beside them.

"That was easier than I thought." Said Donnie with a grin.

"Well, don't get cocky yet. Who knows what this guy has lurking around." Leo said bringing everyone back down to earth. They were breaking and entering into a computer geniuses home after all.

"Where do we start?" asked Holly looking around. The apartment its self was pretty standard, it was furnished, and seemed like any normal Joe-shmo lived here. Except for the work benches pushed up against one wall where any normal bachelor would put a big screen television.

"This is a two bedroom unit." Holly said suddenly. She frowned as she realized that the layout of this unit was exactly the same as her own home upstairs.

"He's using one room as extra work space." Donnie concurred. The two teens moved down the hall way to the room that would have been Holly's if it was her home. They pushed open the door and Holly gasped as they saw a little two legged robot dangling from wires just above another work bench.

"What the hell is that?" April joined the others and stood just behind Donatello, she pointed at the creation in the middle of the room.

"It looks like a robot," Donatello moved into the room, Holly following right behind him. They moved around the work space rifling through all of the paperwork on the desks. Holly pulled open a draw of the filing cabinet and starting looking through Stockmans notes.

"He's calling it a "mouser", It stands for Minefield Ordnance Unarming System Enhanced Robots." Donnie read off of a stack of papers.

"What are they for?" Mikey asked, inching closer to the robot.

"It says here that they're going to be used to help with the rat infestation in New York." Donnie continued reading.

"That's good isn't it? The rats are nasty anyway." Mikey said, poking the mouser with one finger.

"It would be, if they weren't going to release these little guys into the sewer systems." Donatello looked up, he knew that they couldn't let that happen, they would be exposed to the world above.

"They're not operational yet though" Holly turned around, hands full of more notes. "He can't find hardware tough enough to cope with all the information they're gathering. The motherboards keep frying."

"So he's been hiring the foot to steal parts that he can test with and modify for his needs." Leo summarized. It was all clicking into place now. He stayed out side the room with Raph, keeping an eye and an ear out for trouble.

"It would seem that way yes." Donnie replied, he put the notes back on the table making sure they were in roughly the same place he had picked them up from.

"But why steal the parts, I thought he was supposed to be the best? Surely his company would invest in this project, the possibility for profit is almost limitless since rats are everywhere." Holly asked the room.

"Looks like he was fired from his job about a month ago." April said holding up a news paper clipping.

Before anyone could answer, Hollys phone chirped in her pocket. She looked at the screen and answered it as quietly as she could. "Hello?"

"Hey Holly, it's Bud." The doorman's voice came back through her hand set. "I thought you would want to know, one of the tenants on the Johnson's floor has sent someone to collect something from inside their apartment, they have a key so I had to let them up."

"Ok, do you know who's apartment they're going to?" She asked hurriedly, she had a bad feeling about this.

"I think they're going into Baxter Stockmans place, you should stay in the Johnson apartment just incase, they look like trouble." He said with suspicion in his voice.

Hollys face paled, but she tried to sound calm. "Thanks Bud." She looked at the rest of the group, "We have to go, Now!" she hissed.

Nobody even hesitated, Holly stuffed the papers roughly back into the filing cabinet and closed it as quietly as she could. They had no idea how long the purple dragons had been in the elevator.

Leo and Mikey launched themselves out of the window, Raph and Donnie right waited a fraction of a second to make sure the girls were ok. Holly and April ran for the door, but holly stopped and turned around. They had to at least close the window to make it look like they weren't here.

April cracked the door open and peeked in the direction of the elevators. They were too late, there were two of the Gang members laughing and being obnoxious striding toward the apartment. April closed the door as softly as she could.

"Hide!" she whispered.

Holly had to pull the window shut, they were all stuck now. Raph grabbed April by the waist and ran with her into the master bedroom, it was highly unlikely that they would need to go in there.

Holly was stuck on the far side of the room with Donatello, they would have made a run for it, but they heard the sound of a key being slotted into the handle so they were out of time. Donnie grabbed her and dove behind the couch. They landed just as the door opened, hopefully the goons were too busy goofing off to hear the thud.

"Let's just get the hard drive and get out of here, I'm starving." Said goon number one.

"What are you feeling? I could eat anything." replied goon number two.

"Right now I don't care, Stockman said to get the drive and bring it back to him. We do that, then we eat." Goon number one announced irritatedly.

Holly, who had landed on Donnie's shell, leaned down and whispered as softly as she could "Leo can follow them to Stockman."

Donnie just nodded, she felt him shift his weight slightly and he pulled out his phone. He texted Leo what the Purple Dragons had just unknowingly revealed, and mentioned not to text them back and give away their hide out.

"Did he tell you where he put it?" asked the second henchman. He didn't sound terribly bright.

"He said in the second bedroom, just stay here. I'll find it." They heard one of the pair moving toward the room they had just been in, the other one sounded like he was moving closer. Donnie frowned slightly, why would he need to wander around the apartment? Then the heavy set man flung himself onto the couch. Both Donnie and Holly were squished against the wall, they both gritted their teeth against the pain and tears prickled Hollys eyes. This guy must be a monster.

The huge man looked around, Stockmans place was nice. He wondered how the computer guy could afford to place since he didn't have a job right now? He stood back up and went to poke around the rest of the room. Donnie and Holly let out a silent breath, at least the big guy had moved off of them. What they couldn't see was he started snooping around the rest of the apartment. He checked out the Kitchen, opening the fridge and rummaging around. He then moved down the hall and snooped in the bathroom, and from there he started toward the other bedroom.

Inside the main bedroom, Raph and April were crouching behind the bed. This way they had a clear shot to the door to the hall and the door to the bathroom, since it was attached. Also, worst case scenario, they could dive for the walk in closet from where they were if someone were to come into the room. Nothing happened for a while. They heard muffled conversation, which would mean Holly and Donnie were undiscovered, then nothing.

"Do you think Holly and Donatello are ok?" whispered April, she was crouched right next to Raph.

"They'll be fine, we only need to worry if we hear shouting." He reassured her. April nodded, he was right.

They waited for what seemed like hours, until they heard the other bathroom door open. It closed again shortly after, but then the bedroom door started opening. Both April and Raph ducked down, hoping that it was just one of the others coming to tell them the coast was clear.

"Swanky digs." Said a gruff voice. They heard foot septs moving into the room, if the big moron moved toward their position they would have to engage. They were completely pinned.

"What are you doing?" Came another voice, this one higher pitched but still male.

"Just poking around." said the bigger guy, giggling to himself.

"Well knock it off, I got the hard drive. Let's go." The first guy moved away from the door, and after a moment the bigger guy left the room and closed the door. Raph and April exhaled a breath they didn't realize they were holding, and after a moment they crept out from behind the bed and over to the door. Raph opened it a crack, the goons should be gone by now.

He heard some struggling and he saw Holly climbing out from behind the couch through a crack in the door. Raph rushed out into the living room and began to help her get free without stepping on his little brother.

"You guys alright?" He said quietly, just incase. Holly was clutching her side wincing, but she nodded.

"We have to get out of here, they could come back." Donnie said once he was upright again. April was giving him a once over and once he had assured her he was ok, he walked over to the window again.

Raph and Donnie climbed up to the roof, while April and Holly put the screen back in place and closed the window once again. They moved over to the door, peeked out, and made a run for it. The door would lock its self once it was closed again, so they waisted no time making sure it was closed properly and ran up the stairs as fast as Holly could manage.

Once they were back in the apartment, April ran to the balcony doors and called the back down. Donnie had been on the phone with Mikey, who had told him they were following the Purple Dragons by roof top and they would let them know where they were once they had reached their destination.

"That was way too close." Raph said to the girls. "And we didn't learn much."

"Of course we did," snapped Holly, only to wince again and clutch her side. "We know what Stockman is building, why and where he is. As soon as the others call, that is."

"What did you do?" Asked Raph, gripping her elbow to help steady the poor girl.

"I think the big dude brushed my ribs when he sat on the couch. Didn't he squish you too?" she looked a Donnie.

"My ribs are good, I have a shell. He did get my arm pretty good though." Donnie massaged his bicep.

"Are you going to be ok?" Raph asked with actual concern in his voice.

"Yeah, I'll just ice it and wrap it for the night and I should be good." Holly said. She got up and moved to the kitchen looking for an ice pack.

"Hey, I just got a text from Leo. You won't believe this." Donnie said looking irritated. "Stockman is at the fortune cookie factory. He's staying with the Purple dragons."

"You had better be kidding me." Raph said.

"I'll tell the others that well meet them back at the lair, there's no need to confront Stockman tonight." Donnie said.

"Yeah, I've had enough excitement for tonight." Holly came back into the living room, holding a bag of frozen peas up to her side.

"Do you need me to stay with you tonight?" April offered Holly.

"If you like, I will need help wrapping my ribs if you are leaving though." She rolled up her shirt and the beginnings of a bruise was beginning to form on her side. "That's going to hurt tomorrow. Training is going to be a blast." She said with fake enthusiasm.

"Let me call my aunt and I'll see if I can stay, I don't think she'll mind too much." April walked into the kitchen to get some privacy.

"We had better get going, Leo and Mikey are already home." Donnie said to Raph with a quick glance toward the kitchen. Neither of the turtle teens wanted to leave, this was one of the first times they had been alone with the two girls.

"Yeah I know." Raph let the tiniest hint of disappointment reach his voice, if anyone knew how he was feeling right now, it was Donnie. They silently agreed to at least let April get back so they could say good bye, but they knew they had to go. Leo would want to go over all the information they had uncovered with Splinter as soon as possible.

"Don't worry Donnie," Holly said putting a hand on his shell, "Well see you tomorrow, and probably most days this next week." she winked at him for good measure. Donnie smiled sheepishly.

"Alright, I can stay, Since its spring break." April walked back into the living room looking pleased.

"We have to get going. See you tomorrow?" Donnie asked it as a question.

"Of course." April replied brightly. Donnie couldn't help it, he smiled his big gap-toothed grin, which made Holly chuckle, only to follow with another wince.

"Alright, get lost before I keep hurting myself." Holly pointed at the door.

Raph smirked, "See you later, take care of her." He added to April.

"Get going you big softie." Holly gave him a shove.

"I'm not soft!" He glared at her, but kept moving. April took care of neighbor watch while the two turtles scurried up to the roof and off into the night.

"That went smooth." Holly said once April was back inside. She lifted up her shirt again and threw a rolled up bandage to April. "Be gentle, I'm fragile."

April laughed, and started to wind the white cotton around her friends bruised torso. Training really was going to suck tomorrow.


	11. Chapter 11

April awoke the following morning to find Holly already awake, a pot of coffee was brewed and there was toast, bacon and eggs already out on the counter top.

"Good morning." Said Holly piece of toast in her hand.

"What's all this?" April asked. Gesturing to breakfast.

"Oh, I woke up pretty early today." Holly said touching her ribs lightly.

April had almost forgotten that Holly had been hurt yesterday. They had stayed up talking about what they had discovered and sending random texts to the turtles. It had probably been about one in the morning when they had finally collapsed into bed.

"Does it still hurt?" April nodded at her side. Holly pulled up her night shirt and pulled down the bandages, an angry looking bruise had formed over her ribs. It was only about the size of a tennis ball, but it looked tender.

"You know, it looks worse than it feels." Holly said, poking her side gently. "I think I'll be ok."

The girls finished up their breakfast, washed the dishes and put them away. Then they took turns showering and changing into clean clothes, then they sent out texts to their favorite mutant boys to see if they were awake yet. Michelangelo answered first, so the girls decided to walk over to give the rest of the guys a chance to wake up. They grabbed a bag of spare work out clothes and a spare towel each, although Holly doubted she would be taking a dip today, and they set off.

Donnie had been texting April and Holly late last night, he had gone to sleep with his phone on his pillow and had had the best dream. It was a shame he had to wake up sometimes. Donnie had a feeling that Holly was trying to help him out a little in the "April" department, but he wasn't absolutely sure. She was always trying to get April to sit next to him by taking the only other free seat first. But then again, she usually ended up sitting by Raph, and Donnie knew that Raph was perfectly ok with that.

Donatello rolled over in his bed and decided it was probably time to get up, he didn't need to hear Leo yelling at him to get his shell into the training room. He walked out of his room and into the kitchen only to find that April and Holly were already there, and they had breakfast.

"Whats going on? Am I still sleeping?" He eyed them suspiciously.

"What? No." April laughed at the look on his face. "I got a good breakfast today, so we figured we would bring you guys something special too." She held a plate of bacon and eggs up to him. "I saved you some, since Mikey has eaten most of it already." April shot him an evil eye over her shoulder.

"What? It's really good." Mikey said looking glum. He wanted more of this delicious thing called bacon.

"Well, aren't you a lucky boy." Holly said pulling a hidden bag out of no where, it had two more pounds of bacon in it. She started cooking it right away knowing that Mikey was hovering over her shoulder waiting for more. Leonardo had yet to emerge from his room, although Mikey had knocked on his door earlier and had received an answer. Raph was still out for the count. Apparently Mikey had knocked on his door too, since he was normally the last one to wake up, and all he had gotten was some groaning and a soft thud on the other side of the door.

"I might be able to wake him up." She grabbed a plate full of fresh bacon out of the kitchen and walked over to Raphs door. She then sat down and placed the plate on the floor, and began to waft the smell of fresh bacon under his door.

It didn't take very long, Raph could smell something... Something delicious, and he was starving. He rolled off the bed and dragged himself to his door. He pulled it open and was greeted with Hollys face about six inches from his own.

"Hi!" she said, a little louder than necessary.

"Blahh!" He yelled and fell over backwards, his eyes were wide and he stared up at the girl from the floor unable to say anything.

"Want some breakfast?" She said, laughter starting to bubble out of her.

"Dude! You should see the look on your face." Mikey was almost doubled over because he was laughing so hard. "She got you good!"

Raph looked embarrassed, Holly was sure if it had been Mikey to prank him, he would have pounced and punched until he felt better. Raph would just have to suck it up this time, it would be a good learning experience for him.

Holly held out her free hand to Raph, the least she could do was help him up since she had just put a dent in his pride. "Come on tough guy, I saved you some bacon." she smiled and winked at him.

"How are you this perky this early?" He took her hand and let her pull him back to his feet.

"I took a whole handful of pain killers to morning." She grinned at him, but handed over e plate of bacon.

"Oh that's right. How are you doing?" They moved toward the kitchen, and Raph headed straight for the coffee. Mikey grabbed the unattended plate of bacon and started to eat as much as he could.

"I'm doing ok, it's not as bad as it looks. The bruise has already started to shrink, and it has faded from purple to blue." Holly rolled up her shirt to show the boys that she really was ok. "It just needed ice."

Mikey moved closer and crouched down getting a better look at the bruise. "Donnie said you got hurt. Is it still sore?" Mikey moved to poke her. Holly was quicker though, she smacked his hand away just before his big green finger touched her skin.

"Of course it's still sore. But only if I move weird or someone touches it." She hastily rolled down her top again, removing the temptation for Mikey to try poking her again.

Raph shook his head and smiled behind his mug. Unfortunately, he looked over at April and Donnie who were wearing matching smug grins, they looked at each other, then back at Raph. He just narrowed his eyes at them, trying to tell them that they were just as bad as he was without actually saying anything.

Leonardo had finally decided to join the others for breakfast. It looked like he hadn't slept at all that night and when he did finally emerge from his room, he didn't even say hello until he had had a full cup of coffee and was working on a second.

"No offense, but you look worse than I do." Holly greeted him once he was more awake.

"I appreciate that, really. How are your ribs?" He croaked back.

"I'll be fine, why do you look so bad?" She gestured at the bags under his blue face mask.

"I couldn't sleep, I was trying to figure out our next step now that we know what's going on." Sometimes Leo took his role a little too seriously, but that was what made him a great leader.

"Yeah I hear you. We were up for a few hours doing the same thing." April sympathized.

"I suggest we do our training to wake up and clear our heads. Then we can discuss what we are going to do and when." Donatello reasoned. Everyone agreed.

Splinter didn't go easy on them, the boys sparred against each other while the girls did more strength training and worked on their form. Holly tried to do the sit ups, but she just couldn't do more than a few without her ribs aching. Master Splinter didn't seem to mind that she had to do a few at a time, at least she was trying.

After training was over and everyone was clean and refreshed, the turtles brothers and the human girls sat around their kitchen table discussing their next move. It was already decided that Holly and April would have to sit this one out, they just weren't ready to deal with the purple dragons directly.

"I think we need to stop production of the mousers without drawing attention to ourselves. That way Stockman and the dragons won't know for sure who is responsible." Leo suggested.

"Yeah, the last thing we need is another group trying to hunt us down." Mikey added.

Holly frowned, but decided to forget it for now. If she hung around these people long enough she would find out sooner or later.

"Why don't we just go in and knock a few heads together." Raph punched one hand into the other for added effect.

"Not every problem needs to be solved with violence Raph." Leo looked at his brother. "and you don't need to show off for anyone either." Leo just grinned shooting a knowing glance at Holly, he would pay for that later but sometimes Raph just needed bringing back down to earth.

Raph nearly choked. He was going to kick Leo's butt later, as soon as Holly was gone. He just folded his arms and sulked for the rest of the meeting. Holly smirked, she almost felt bad for Raphael. Almost.

"Ok, but how do we get past the Purple Dragons without being seen? You know they're always skulking around the factory." Donnie spoke up.

"We'll need a distraction, it needs to be noisy and flashy but it can't be associated with us." Leo said scratching his chin.

April and Holly looked at each other, maybe they could be of help. "Fire crackers." They said almost in unison.

"We can get you fire crackers and throw them outside the entrance to the cookie factory." April blurted out excitedly.

"It should work." Donnie said, "But I don't think you girls should get involved, we don't want them to think your associating with us."

"But it will take all four of you to make sure Stockman can't keep producing mousers, and they'll just think we're a couple of kids making trouble." April continued

"We can wear disguises, if we dress like boys they won't even think twice about us being anything but trouble makers." Holly added. The turtles looked at each other, they really didn't want to get the girls involved in this. No one said anything for a few minutes. April was determined, she knew she could do this and she wanted to help.

"Alright, fine. But as soon as you see any Purple Dragons you get out of there. We might not be available to help you out if you get in trouble." Leo said.

"Speak for yourself." Raph muttered.

"Ok. April and I will get fire crackers and well grab some of my sparer hoodies and sweatpants." Holly summarized, holding back another smirk. "When are you guys going to do this?"

"Tonight." Leo said definitively.

"We'd better get going then." Holly stood and April followed suit. They moved out of the kitchen and scooped up their bags before heading to the exit.

"See you later!" Donnie shouted after them.

"Bye." Both girls replied.

Raph was still annoyed. "I wasn't trying to impress anyone." He said to Leo, still sulking.

"Yeah right dude. Your acting as bad as Donnie does around April." Mikey interrupted.

"Hey!" Donnie yelled, he punched Mikey in the shoulder for good measure.

Raph just stomped off, he didn't want to admit that there was the tiniest possibility he might maybe have some actually feelings for the girl in the glasses, but he couldn't deny it either. If Mikey could tell then he really must be acting strange. He stomped into the training room and punched the dummy a few times, he felt a little better now.

"Raphael," Master Splinter walked slowly up to his son. "What seems to be troubling you?" Raph didn't say anything, it sounded so stupid when he said it out loud. "Your brothers are teasing you about your feelings for Holly, aren't they?" Splinter guessed, not that it was a challenge. Again, the turtle in red remained silent. "There is no shame in these feelings my son, and caring for someone is not weakness."

"What does it matter how I feel? It's not like I, or any of us, could ever actually have a relationship with anyone, Donatello may still be deluded but I'm not." Raph finally put all his thoughts and fears into those few sentences, his heart tightened in his chest painfully. He hadn't realized how long he had been wanting to say that out loud.

"Donatello is not deluded, he is hopeful, and there is nothing wrong with that either." Splinter added hastily seeing the look on Raphael's face. "I think you underestimate the power of love. Even though it takes work, it can be one of the most rewarding parts of life. My only regret from my life as a man, is that I let my pride get in the way of my heart." Master Splinter turned to leave, he knew Raphael had to sort some things out in his head before he would be ready to try talking again.

"Thank you, father." Splinter heard from across the room. He just smiled to himself, Raphael could be so sensitive sometimes.

The girls returned to the lair a couple of hours later. Apparently they had had a hard time finding the fire crackers, they had resorted to bribing an senior from their school to buy them some from a fireworks stand in china town. It had been a huge pain, but they had managed it and they had scrounged up some clothes that didn't have brand names plastered all over them. They had come back just in time to start getting ready for that nights raid.

It was almost eight thirty at night and the sun was just setting on the surface. The girls changed into their disguises and started laughing at each other. Holly had on a bace ball cap and a big gray hoodie with the hood pulled up over her face. She had on a black pair of sweat pants that she had had to roll up a few times to get them to fit properly. April was dressed in a similar manner. She had on a navy hoodie with white stripes down the sleeves and the matching pants.

The last thing Holly had decided to change about her appearance was to ditch her glasses for the night. She had grabbed one of her pairs of contacts and decided now was a good time to put them in, she didn't want to worry about breaking her glasses if she had to run for it. If she fell over with contacts in she should be ok.

The turtles looked at the two teenage girls, and if they hadn't known better, would have sworn they were guys. Leo gave them a quick once over to make sure they didn't have anything sticking out that would give away that they were girls.

"April, make sure your hair is tucked in properly." He said to the red head, her hair could easily be picked up against her dark clothes and that could give away her true gender. "Ok, I think we're ready. Where's Raph?"

"I'm here, chill out." Raph walked out of the training room, slotting his sai into his belt. "Whoa." He stopped for the briefest moment to look at Holly. He had seen her take off her glasses to clean them, but she looked so different. Her eyes were bright and focused, and so very big.

"So? Are we ready to go?" April stared at Raph waiting for him to come back to them.

"Yeah, let's do this." Raph snapped back to himself like nothing had happened and charged out of the entrance. Everyone raced after him and off into the night.

The turtle boys were positioned on the roofs or buildings surrounding the fortune cookie factory. Leo was standing right above the girls and was waiting to give them the signal that they were ready. Once he saw that the others were in position, he whistled to the girls on the street. April and Holly were waiting in a sided alley just out of view of the fortune cookie factory. They heard the signal and nodded to each other, they lit as many of the fire crackers as they could and hurled them around the corner at the couple of goons standing guard right in front of the factory.

The two meat heads hopped around as the fire crackers popped and flashed at their feet. The men jumped around flailing their arms from the shock, but they soon recovered and started hunting for the source. They saw two scruffy looking teens throwing fire crackers at them from around the corner. The first goon yelled into the factory for back up while the second good stalked straight for the kids.

April and Holly threw a few more fire crackers before they started running, they knew that the two oafs at the door would follow them, but they needed to get as many of the dragons outside as possible. They saw one of the men open the factory door and yell inside for some help while the other started towards them. "Quick, throw the rest then let's go." April hissed. The two girls hurled the last few strips directly at the two guards, then turned on their heels and ran. They couldn't stick around to find out if the guys were ok, if they were caught their cover would be blown and Leo would never let them in on a plan again.

They ran as fast as they could through the back streets in no particular direction. They couldn't head to either the lair or Aprils place just incase the Purple Dragons followed them all the way back to either place. The girls ran around corner after corner and eventually found a good place to hide so they could strip off their sweaters and stroll out onto the street in the more feminine clothes they had on underneath.

Leo hopped over to the roof next to the factory and stood next to Raphael. They watched as the girls took off at full speed with a handful of Purple Dragon members in hot pursuit. Leo put a reassuring hand on Raph's shoulder, then turned and hopped onto the roof of the factory. Donnie and Mikey were already by one of the skylights waiting to go.

"They'll be fine, let's get this over with." Leo whispered to his other worried brother in purple. They lowered themselves onto the steel girders that ran the length of the ceiling and made their way to the upper level of the warehouse. They dropped down behind some crates, and peeked out to make sure the coast was clear. It looked like Stockman and the rest of the gang members were busy making sure there wasn't a gun fight going on outside, the last thing they needed was the cops to come and raid the place. There was enough stolen merchandise hidden here to get the whole group locked up for a long time.

Leo darted out from behind the crates and over to what would be offices, inside was another mouser unit on a work bench with a few old computers running along side it. There was also a couch and a cot in the room, but that was it. The rest of the large work space was filled with boxed full of hard drives, processors and motherboards.

Donnie dashed out and crept into the office room, he moved instantly to the computer network and began tapping keys on the keyboards. He pulled out his phone and a USB cord and plugged it into the front of the tower. He had created a virus that he was going to attach to Stockman's files, if he tried to access or recover them at all he would have a complete system failure.

Leo pointed to the file cabinets and Mikey instantly started pulling out papers and tearing them to pieces. Raph waited outside the room hidden so he had a view of the group of men on the lower level. They didn't have long, the men were starting to lose interest in the commotion and were starting to move back from the doors.

"Lets go already." Raph hissed at his brothers.

"These things take time." replied Donnie, "You just have to be patient."

"There has to be a faster way?" Leo asked his technologically inclined brother.

"Just give me a moment, aside from stealing the hard drive this is the most effective way to shut him down." Donnie said.

This was stupid, Stockman was already climbing the stairs, they were going to be caught no matter what. Raph groaned in frustration, he slapped his forehead with his palm and dragged it down his face. The least he could do was give Donnie more time to make sure this guy was out of commission.

Raph leapt out of his hiding place, he stood with one sai in each hand right at the top if the stairs. "Sorry buddy, but we're just going to have to shut you down."

"What are you?" Was all Stockman could manage, until he looked up at his office and saw more of the things tearing up his life's work. "Hey! Stop that!" He turned towards the Purple dragon members who were still in the building. "Stop those things or you don't get paid!"

Paid, that was a word the gang was familiar with. As soon as they turned around and saw the turtles they paused, they had dealt with those freaks before, and gotten their butts whopped more than once. But when it came down to it, they would at least try so they could possibly get paid rather than give up and certainly not get paid.

The Purple Dragon members charged up the stairs past the stunned computer genius.

"Now we're talking!" Raph yelled and charged right back.

"Oh lord. Mikey, let's go!" Leo yelled back at his goofy little brother.

"Alright!" The two boys charged out of the room, leaving Donnie to finish destroying Stockmans files.

The three ninja boys dipped and dived around the flailing arms of the gang members. The odds were not in their favor, three fully trained ninjas against a room full of color coordinated goons who weren't smart enough to graduate high school. You had to feel sorry for the gang members.

Raph took out all of his frustration on the poor unsuspecting men in front of him, he punched one of the guys in the gut with the hilt of his weapon, he dropped to the floor gasping for air. Another was tossed over the railing and landed on top of two other half wits. Raph dodged a fist and gave the offending brute a swift upper cut, as he followed through with his punch, Raph span and kicked another advancing goon down the stairs into three other guys. He let a smile play across his face, her really did love this sometimes.

Leo sprang over the railing and down onto the conveyor belt on the factory floor. He swung his swords around as he assessed how many gang members they were dealing with. Raph seemed to be having plenty of fun on the stairs, so all he had to take care of were the few idiots on the floor. One of them came at him with a chain, he blocked the chain as it swished towards his face and sliced clean through it. As his sword came back around he flung the chain back at the guy who had just tried to hit him with it, the chain made a sickly thudding noise as it caught the guy in the chest.

Mikey followed Leo over the railing and started swinging wildly with his nun-chucks. He smacked a couple of guys in the face as the continuous motion of his weapon kept it spinning around and around. He ran off around the floor of the factory to come up behind the guys who were going for Raph. They just didn't have a chance, with the aggressive turtle in front of them and the excitable one behind there was no where to go. With in a few minutes most of the purple dragons were lying on the floor groaning. The few who were still on their feet didn't seem to want to do anything anymore. They just stood waiting for something to happen.

Stockman was stunned, there're we're three huge, what looked like terrapins running around beating up his lackeys. There was a fourth one fiddling around with his computer, he had to stop him before he ruined everything. He ran up the stairs past the angry looking one and burst through the door to his office, Stockman surveyed the damage. His paperwork was lying in tatty pieces all over the floor, and he saw an upload bar on his screen. It was almost full. What ever that turtle creature was doing, he had to stop it before it was too late.

Donatello heard someone behind him, he turned to see Baxter Stockman in the doorway clearly distraught that his work had been destroyed. But they couldn't risk the mousers being released into the sewers.

"I wouldn't even bother trying to stop me." Donnie said to the man, pulling his Bo staff off his back. Apparently the mad scientist didn't want to listen as he charged into the room, his little Afro bouncing on top of his head comically. Donnie rolled around the unskilled man and gave him a good shove away from the computers.

Stockman fell face first into his grubby couch. He clearly wasn't up to taking on this thing by himself so maybe it was time to call in the cavalry. There were some perks to working on the shady side of the law.


	12. Chapter 12

Donnie watched stockman from across the room, he had seemed to realize he couldn't do anything but he didn't look defeated, in fact he looked like he was forming a plan. He didn't like that, if Stockman had a back up plan this could all turn very bad, very quickly.

Stockman pulled a hand held device out of his breast pocket, it didn't look like a cell phone so he wasn't going to call anyone, however it did have an ominous big red button on the face plate. In typical bad guy manner, Stockman gave Donnie a vicious smile and dramatically pressed the button.

There was a distinct rumbling sound coming from one end of the factory. The three turtle boys on the lower floor looked around at the source of the sound. Side by side garage doors were sliding up on an automatic winch. Behind the doors was row upon row of shiny new mouser units, their armor bodies glinted in the fluorescent lighting.

"Donnie?" Leo called, "What are those doing there?" the few purple dragon members who were still in the factory started running. They had already seen what those nasty little things could do and they weren't about to stick around.

"Looks like your too late." Stockman said softly. He drew a little canister out of his jacket and sprayed Donnie before running out of the door. He then headed for the stairs only to find his way blocked by the remaining three turtles, they just made it too easy. Stockman sprayed the same red mist on the other, then vaulted over the railing to the factory floor. He hopped up on the conveyor and just laughed.

"You really like to go through the whole mad scientist bit, don't you?" Mikey said to the cackling maniac.

"What did you just spray on us?" Donatello asked

"It's a radioactive isotope that the mousers are programmed to hunt and destroy." Stockman answered. He pressed another button on his hand held remote control and a hundred little robots purred to life. The red sensors on the front of the bots blinked on and an disturbing amount of movement started towards the turtle boys. A mechanical growling reached their ears, which was responded to be a whole chorus of the same cringe worthy screech.

All of the bots launched themselves out of the garages and at the turtle at full speed, and at first the boys battered and smashed their way through as many of the monsters that they could but soon they were being over run and had to retreat back up to the roof.

"We can't keep fighting those things like this. We'll exhaust ourselves." panted Leo once they were back outside.

"Yeah but we can keep running either, and those things will follow us until this isotope wears off." Donnie snapped.

"Can't we just, like, wash it off?" Mikey offered hopefully.

"If I had made it, no. So I'm guessing that stockman was smart enough to do the same." Donnie replied.

The still night was punctured by the high pitched sound of a woman screaming. They turtles looked at each other and rushed to the side of the building, the mousers had crashed trough the front of the factory and were spilling onto the city streets. People were running in every direction that was away from the mousers, they chewed their way through benches and street signs always keeping a mechanical eye on their targets.

"This is bad." Raph muttered more to himself than anyone. A metallic screech rang out directly behind the turtles. They turned to see a lone mouser stalking towards them. "How did that get up here?" Raph threw a shuriken at it, it sank deep into the sensor and the the robot keeled over and shut down. The four turtles let out a sigh, only to inhale it back in a moment later. More and more of the mouser units had found their way onto the roof top.

"What do we do Leo?" Mikey yelled, shaking his leader in exaggerated desperation.

"We have to run." No one waited another heart beat. They all took off over the rooftops as quick as they could. The mousers on street level, turned and followed the turtles, more screaming was heard as more and more people caught sight of the miniature army rushing through the streets.

April and Holly had made a clean get away and they were feeling quite proud of themselves. They had ditched their baggy boy clothes in a dumpster and had revealed jeans and tank tops that hugged their curves. April's hair was back in its usual pony, while Holly had elected for a messy bun since she had had to hide it under the hat earlier.

They were walking the streets surrounding the fortune cookie factory, they wanted to make sure the turtles had escaped unscathed. They had been separated for almost an hour now and they were starting to worry. It shouldn't have taken this long.

"We should do another lap around the block, and if we still don't find them we should climb up to the roof of one of the buildings." April suggested.

"Alright, lets go around the next block over though, we've already walked that way six times. We'll draw attention to ourselves if we go there again." Holly had been keeping tabs on where they had gone more than just a few times.

April nodded, and the girls set off. They had made it to the end of the block they were on when a woman behind them screamed. They turned to see what on earth was going on, and there were a battalion of mousers advancing onto the streets.

"I thought they weren't operational yet?" April grabbed Hollys arm.

"They weren't supposed to be." Holly said, eyes wide in shock. The mousers started chewing on anything that was in their way. People were scattering everywhere, clearing off the streets as fast as they could.

Without warning, the mousers turned and started directly at the girls. "Run!" April shouted, and they both tore off down the street.

"What the hell are they doing?" Holly shouted, "This doesn't make sense, they were supposed to hunt rats, not people.

"I don't know, but we need to get out of their way." April turned down an alley, hopped onto a trash can, up onto a dumpster and launched herself at a fire escape. She scrambled up as fast as she could making room for Holly to do the same. Unfortunately, Holly was not as coordinated as her friend, and she tripped over the curb stumbling and crashing into the trash can. She rolled and got back to her feet and continued along the alley.

"Get to the roof and find the guys, I'll find another way up." she shouted as she continued running. The mousers were close behind her.

April scrambled as fast as she could up to the roof, and when she reached it she pulled out her phone. She punched the speed dial and her phone instantly started ringing. A clearly running Donnie answered the other line.

"Hey April, I can't really talk right now." he panted into the speaker.

"What the hell is going on? The mousers are running around in the streets." April cut him off.

"Yeah, they're after us." Donnie explained simply.

"How do we stop them?" April asked simply.

"Uhm." Was all Donnie said. April felt a chill go through here body, if he didn't know what to do they really were in trouble. "Where are you? Are you safe?" Donnie asked.

"I'm fine for now, I'm on the roof. But Holly is a klutz and missed the jump. She's still on the street." April started searching the alleys around the building she was on, the mousers were gone but there was no sign of Holly. April, braved a look over the edge of the building, before she hurled herself across the gap onto the building next to her. She tucked and rolled to avoid injury and put the phone back up to her ear. "Where are you guys?"

"Were a few buildings away, I can see you from here." April started searching frantically, she spotted the boys leaping from building to building with a swarm of mousers following close behind them. So, the mousers could climb. That wasn't good.

April hun up on Donnie and waved to him, the turtle boys made their way over to her along the roof tops, smacking any mousers that got too close to them.

"So I'm guessing things didn't go as planned?" April asked.

"Not exactly." admitted Donnie. "Stockman sprayed us with ions that the mousers are designed to find. We cant go home until we take care of this."

"Right, so does anyone have a plan yet?" April got right to the point. They didn't have time to waste here.

"The only way to stop them is to either destroy the mousers or wait for the ions to deteriorate." Donnie said. "Since waiting for the isotopes could take days, I think total destruction is our best option."

"And how are we going to do that exactly?" Raph asked, stabbing through three mouser units with one strike.

"Ha! You made a mouser kebob." Mikey pointed.

"Knock it off Mikey." Leo snapped, "We don't have time for fooling around."

"Can't we just drown them? They can't be water proof." April offered.

"I don't think so, if they're going to be brought down it will be with an EMP." Donnie shook his head, this was hopeless. "Have you heard from Holly?" He asked.

April shook her head, she had no idea where Holly was. "I just hope she found somewhere safe to hide out."

"Well lets get going, we need to keep moving until we have a plan." Leo motioned for the rest of the turtles to follow him.

Donnie threw April onto his back, "Hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride." She just nodded.

As they leapt across the roof tops, With the mousers still on their trail, the little group kept bouncing ideas off one another. They couldn't just create an electro magnetic pulse out of thin air, so the next best thing was to create an artificial one. They kept moving, until Raph skidded to a stop and pointed to the other side of the road.

"I found Holly." He announced, he couldn't help but laugh at her situation. She had managed to climb onto a phone booth and was swinging at the mousers with what looked like a crow bar. She was holding them off fairly well until they started eating through the base of the booth. As it tipped, she launched herself at some awning over a store front. She landed on it bouncing slightly, and scrambled over to a drain pipe that she could climb up to the roof. Once she hauled herself to the roof she looked down at the street and let out a sigh.

"You look like your doing well." Raph shouted to her across the street.

"Better than you apparently." she pointed at the mousers that were advancing across their rooftop. The turtles and April looked at where she was pointing, they couldn't keep running like this, they needed to stop these things once and for all. Holly looked around, at this rate they would be mouser meat before midnight. "Donnie, got any ideas?"

"Electrocution." Was all he could shout back, they were fighting off another wave of robots.

"What about that?" She shouted back.

He turned to her, and saw her eyeing up a fire hydrant. If they could get all the mousers into a puddle of water and zap it with electricity it should overload their system. He turned back to his brothers and April, "Quick, get them all down to the street."

Holly grabbed her crow bar, she needed to get back down to the street to try and open the fire hydrant. Great, she had just made it off the street.

Donatello grabbed April and hurled himself and the girl over the ledge of the building, the two fell a short distance until Donnie's spare hand grabbed onto a telephone line and they slid over to the other buildings. April was deposited onto the awning Holly had landed on earlier, while the tallest turtle continued down to street level drawing the mousers nearer and nearer. The rest of the turtles followed him down and soon they were standing back to back in the middle of a sea of killer robots.

Holly couldn't find anything to open the fire hydrant with, it's not like there was a hardware store near by. She had her crow bar, but that wouldn't be much good, she needed a wrench. She dashed out from the alley way she was in to see the turtle boys in the street surrounded on all sides, she was out of time. She dashed out and rammed the crow bar into the valve on the front of the hydrant, but nothing happened.

"Any time now." Raph yelled at her, stabbing and kicking any mouser that tried to chomp on his foot.

Holly looked around, the only thing tough enough to break the valve off was the mousers, but they wouldn't do it voluntarily. Holly had an idea. She smacked one of the mousers that was near her over it's head with her crow bar, it turned around and screeched at her.

"Come and get me." She stared the little beast down, it pounced at her aiming for her knees. Just as the mouser leapt, Holly flung herself sideways out of the line of fire. The mousers hydronic jaws clamped down on the valve of the fire hydrant, and instantly the back pressure blew the bot half way across the street. A wave of cold water hit the tarmac and spread out under the feet of the mousers and the turtles.

"Now what?" Asked Mikey.

"Get ready to jump." Leo threw his sword up and it severed a couple of power lines that were swinging above the street. As the wires swung towards the floor, the ninja boys jumped onto anything that was up and out of the forming lake. Raph picked Holly up off the floor and threw her over his shoulder, he jumped onto the concrete base of a street light just a second before an electrical discharge that spread across all the wet surfaces. The mousers screeched as their circuits got fried, they then just flopped over, their red sensors all blinking out one at a time.

The turtles and two girls just looked at each other, Donnie had climbed up to where April was and they were making their way back up to the rooftops. Raph shifted Holly onto his shell, they were going to have to climb the light post to get to the roof from where they were.

"Hold on tight, ok?" Raph said over his shoulder. Holly just nodded grimly. She was exhausted, this had been one troublesome night. Raph hopped up and grabbed onto the lights horizontal beam, he swung himself and his passenger up and then jumped over to the nearest building. The gang gathered on the roof, the sound of sirens could be heard from a few blocks away.

"It's time to go guys, are we good to go back to the lair Donnie?" Leo didn't want to lead those things down to their home. This encounter had wiped his team out and they needed rest.

"We should be good, I doubt Stockman has anymore ready to go right now. And the ions probably only have a half-life of about an hour. Any longer and they could be cancerous." Donnie reassured his leader.

"Ok, lets get back below ground, before the sirens get here." No one argued, even Raph kept his mouth shut for once. This had not been the best day, they had nearly been eaten by robots and it had taken all their resources to finally beat the little beasties.

Everyone got back to the lair and collapsed onto the couches. Holly took her contacts out and rubbed her eyes vigorously. April was laying face down groaning into the soft fabric. Mikey and Donnie were leaning against each others with matching looks of relief on their faces. Leo looked around, that was a disaster, it couldn't have gone worse. Well it could have gone worse, they had all made it home safely after all.

"Look on the bright side guys." He said to the room, "At least we destroyed all the mousers."

"Oh yeah, we destroyed something that wasn't even supposed to be functioning at all. Thats great news." Raph gave his brother a sarcastic thumbs up.

"I know it wasn't ideal, but we can't beat ourselves up about a few slip ups." Leo reassured his team. A chorus of groans was all he got for a response. "How about we just watch some tv?" Leo grabbed the remote and found a spot to sit, he flipped through the channels until they found an old movie they all agreed on. Mikey quickly hopped up and grabbed some popcorn and sodas for everyone with help from Raph.

Holly had scooted over to make room for Raph and Mikey on the couch. April had sat up to make extra room but she was getting tired and her head kept rolling from side to side. Holly was tired too, she was just going to rest her eyes for a while, before she had to go home.

Raph felt something bump his shoulder, he looked over to see Hollys head resting against his shoulder, she was breathing softly and her hair had fallen out of its bun and over her face. He didn't really know what to do, he didn't want to move her incase she woke up but she couldn't be very comfortable leaning against him. He shifted uncomfortably, but she just mumbled something in her sleep and leaned in closer. She draped an arm over his, he was glad that everyone else was preoccupied since he was definitely blushing. He chanced a glance over at Donnie, he was watching the two of them enviously.

"What do I do?" Raph mouthed silently.

"Nothing, just relax." Donnie mouthed back. April had passed out and was laying on the section of couch in between her and Holly, how he wished she had fallen the other way. Donatello had been waiting for the kind of opportunity Raph had right now, and Raph looked so uncomfortable. If it were him and April, he would brush her hair out of her face and put an arm around her shoulders pulling her in closer. And yet Raph was sitting rigid as stone looking awkward.

After an hour, Raph decided that he should probably try and wake Holly up. She hadn't moved much since she fell asleep on him, she just fidgeted until he had turned slightly and her head had come to rest on his plastron. He had his arm up on the back of the couch behind her and had started nodding off too, until he had been disturbed by Mikey and Leo snickering with each other at his expense. If Holly hadn't been using him as a big green pillow he would have punched them, but then again, if she wasn't using him as a big green pillow, they wouldn't have anything to snicker at.

Raph tried to sit up straighter again, but holly groaned in protest. He grasped here shoulders and pushed her into a seated position. "Holly, wake up." He spoke softly so as not to startle her. She just groaned again. "Holly?"

"I'll do it later." Holly mumbled. Raph shook his head, looks like they were having house guests tonight. He set her down softly on the couch and stretched, it was time to go to bed himself. Before he did though, he fetched a couple of spare pillows and blankets for the girls. He threw one set at Donnie and the two boys made sure their girls were warm and comfy.

Before he went to his room, Donnie leaned over April and brushed her hair out of her face. She smiled in her sleep and nuzzled his hand as it brushed over her skin. He couldn't help but smile himself, he looked up at Raph who was watching him. He smiled smugly and gestured that Raph might want to try the same thing.

Raphael looked down at the girl now sleeping soundly on the couch, he couldn't believe how easily Donnie had just interacted with April, like it was nothing. He just couldn't do it, sure it had been nice relaxing with her on the sofa, but that had been accidental. He had never been very affectionate, and it didn't feel right to pretend to be just because of a girl. If she really liked him, it wouldn't matter that he wasn't a hopeless romantic, that was Donatello. Instead of following his brothers lead, he just shrugged and walked to his bedroom door. If he needed to show his more sensitive side, it would be to her face, not to her sleeping frame on their family's couch.

Hello again readers, I again just wanted to thank all of the readers who have given me so many kind comments. I'm glad that you are enjoying my story and hope I can keep everyone happy with what I have planned. Thank you!


	13. Chapter 13

Master Splinter emerged from his room the following morning to discover that both of the girls were on their couch today. They must have had a rough night dealing with Baxter Stockman since both April and Holly were still in their jeans and tanks from the previous night. Splinter moved quietly to the kitchen and start the coffee that he knew would be needed by more that just Raphael today.

Holly woke up to the smell of fresh coffee, she looked around through groggy eyes and realized she had called asleep at the turtles lair. It was a good job her mother had not come home this weekend or she would be in so much trouble. She grabbed her glasses hastily and made her way into the kitchen.

"Oh, hello Master." Holly said through a yawn. "How did you know we'd need coffee today?"

Master Splinter just chuckled, "You must have been exhausted to sleep in the same jeans you had on yesterday."

Holly looked down at herself. "I suppose your right, How was your night?"

The old rat looked at her carefully, "I had rather an interesting conversation with Raphael yesterday that got me thinking about my old life."

"Hopefully they were happy memories." Holly said innocently as she poured herself some coffee.

"They were for the most part yes." He smiled slightly, "They were of my family."

Holly was about to take a sip of here coffee, but stop before it touched her lips. "Oh, Im sorry, I didn't know." She stuttered.

"It is alright, it's not something I would expect my boys to tell you." He waved it off, clearly there was another point to this story. "I lost my family because I was stubborn, I let my own pride get between myself and them." He paused for a moment watching her reaction.

"And the conversation you had with Raph made you think about this?" Holly asked, putting one and one together. They had been talking about love and relationships.

Master Splinter remained silent, he was watching her over the top of his tea. Holly just sat still for a moment, deciding how to phrase her next sentence.

"We both know he is unbelievably stubborn. But, I know he is more caring and sensitive than he would ever be willing to admit." She looked at the old rat who just smiled back at her.

"Apparently he is quite comfortable too." April said walking into the kitchen. "Good morning Master Splinter."

"Good morning Miss O'Neil." Splinter said.

"What are you talking about?" Holly watched April walking over to the coffee with a big smirk on her face.

"You totally fell asleep against him last night." April laughed as Holly choked on here drink. "Yeah, I was awake just long enough to see it happen."

"Oh god." Holly put her forehead on the table, then lifted it rapidly, maybe there was hope. "Did he at least push me off, or get up?"

"Nope." April smiled and sipped on her coffee.

"Why did you tell me that? What if he thinks I meant to do that?" Holly's head was back on the table.

"Meant to do what?" Leo asked from the arch way.

"Sleep on Raph." April said before Holly could deny anything.

"Oh that." He said like it wasn't a big deal. "I thought you looked cute."

"I'm going to kill you guys for this." Holly chuckled, turning red in the face. "So everyone knows about this? I was the only one who woke up thinking everything was normal?"

"Oh yeah." Leo said smugly. "Just wait until Mikey gets up, he's going to have a field day."

The three teens laughed together, even Splinter chuckled quietly with them. Holly was so embarrassed, but she had to admit that it was pretty funny. If it would have been April and Donnie she would be giving them just as much grief.

"Hey everyone." Mikey walked in yawning rubbing his eyes. "What's for breakfast?" Mikey stopped when he saw Holly, a smile grew across his face. "How did you sleep?" He emphasized the "You" to make sure she knew what he was asking. Holly just smiled, she wasn't going to take the bait.

Donnie and Raph walked into the kitchen together, they were having what looked like a serious conversation. The little group was still laughing when they rounded the corner.

"What's so funny?" Raph asked, he looked around everyone and noticed that Holly was red in the face and avoiding his gaze.

"Everyone seems to find it hilarious that I fell asleep on you last night." Holly admitted. "I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable, I didn't mean to." she finally looked at him, she was beet red in the face and was clearly just as uncomfortable as he was.

"Oh, um, that. It's no big deal, don't worry about it." He waved his hand and walked passed everyone to the coffee pot. He stood facing the counter with his back to everyone. The conversation turned to Aprils aunt and what she was going to tell her about last night, but Raph wasn't paying attention. His heart was racing and his eyes were wide. Why did they have to tell her about last night, he was perfectly happy pretending he hadn't enjoyed it. Even if everyone else knew he did, Holly hadn't known.

A ringing phone caused a lull in the conversation, Holly jumped up when she recognized the tone as hers. She ran into the other room to answer the call, so Raph decided to ask the others some questions.

"What did you tell her for?" He hissed at them.

"Calm down dude," Mikey said around a mouthful of food. He swallowed it before he continued. "She was totally cool about it."

"Yeah, she even cracked a couple of jokes herself." Leo added.

"I wouldn't worry Raph," April said, "She was banging here head against the table earlier." She had a huge grin on her face, and everyone else was laughing again.

"You all suck." He grabbed his coffee and walked out of the kitchen, he was stomping across the living area towards his room when he saw Holly sitting on the sofa with her head down. He looked back towards the kitchen to make sure the others were preoccupied, then back over to Holly.

"Hey, are you alright?" he walked over to her and stood just behind her.

"Yeah," Her voice was shaky and was breaking as she spoke, "Everything's fine."

"Yeah I completely believe you." He said sarcastically. He checked over his shoulder one more time, then decided she might like some privacy. "Come on, let's go." He grabbed her hand and dragged her off towards the training room.

"Hey!" She protested, but she let herself be dragged off anyway.

Once they were in the training room and Raph had closed the door behind them, he turned to look at her in the face. She was looking at the floor, and she was holding herself like she was cold.

"What is wrong?" He stood with his free hand on his hip, the other still held his mug of coffee.

"That was my mom on the phone. She's not coming home today." Holly spoke quietly. Her eyes never left the floor.

"I thought you said she was?" Raph was confused, Holly had been happy her mom was coming home. Why would she change her mind so suddenly.

"She got an urgent call from her Chicago office, she had to leave immediately and she'll be gone until after I go back to school next week." Holly sounded bitter. The tone didn't suit her usual bubbly personality.

"Couldn't she send someone else to take care of it? How urgent could a fashion emergency be?" Raph asked.

"I don't know, but she had to go herself." Holly looked up at him, she had been crying and there were twin gleaming stains running down her cheeks.

"Have you told her you want her to stay?" Raph asked, his usual harsh demeanor was softening slightly.

"Once, but she played the guilt card so I never tried again."Raph gave her a questioning look. "She said I didn't want her to be happy because I was making her give up her dreams of owning her own fashion line."

"That's terrible, how could she say that?" Raph was horrified, how could anyone say that to their family. Holly just shrugged and looked worse than ever. "You want me to smack some sense into her?" He gave her a grin, she couldn't help but smile.

"I think she'd scream and pass out before you got a chance." She replied. Raph was happy to see she was sounding more and more like herself.

"I think anyone who wouldn't want to spend all of their time with you is crazy." Raph realized what he had just said about a second after it had slipped out. But she just smiled sadly at him.

"I just wish, once, she would stay home. Do you realize I spend just as much time alone as I do with her?"

Raph didn't have a response for her, what could he say? Instead he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Your always welcome here, you know that?"

Holly looked at the turtle boy beside her. He was being so nice, it was almost weird, and he really did mean that she was welcome in their home. She and never really been accepted by anyone before, she had always been an oddball at school and she only had shared interests with her father, whom she hadn't seen in nearly two years. It was almost too much, she nearly broke down again. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder.

Raph jumped when Holly sprang at him, he stiffened for a moment then relaxed and wrapped an arm around her waist. He felt her shoulders shaking against him, and she sobbed softly into his neck. He tightened his grip around her protectively. She calmed down and took a deep shuddering breath, detaching herself from him.

"Thanks Raph." She leaned down slightly and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. She wiped her eyes and smiled at him. She walked back towards the door and just before she went back out to the living area, she looked back and smiled at him.

Raph just stood there, not really sure what to do.

"Very smooth, I don't think you have to worry about wether or not she likes you anymore." Master Splinter emerged from the adjoining room.

"Master," Raph span around, sloshing coffee around almost spilling it. "How long we're you standing there?"

"I wasn't standing here, I could hear you from my room." Splinter said with a smile. "You acted honorably my son, and you made her very happy."

"I just told her the truth." Raph shrugged.

"And that was exactly what she needed to hear." Master Splinter turned and walked back into his room.

Raph looked at the coffee in his hand, he was going to have to go back to the kitchen for a fresh cup, this one had gone cold. He huffed dramatically before stalking back out into the living area.

Everyone was sitting around doing their own thing, April and Donnie had their heads together looking at something on Aprils laptop. Mikey was nodding along to his music and reading a comic at the same time, and Leo was watching reruns of his favorite tv show. Raph walked passed everyone and straight into the kitchen on his hunt for coffee.

Holly was in the kitchen also, she was washing her face in the sink and she had set her glasses on the table. Raph decided to just let he be, she had just been through some rough stuff and if she needed comforting she would let him know. He poured himself some coffee and turned to lean against the counter.

"I'm alright now." Holly said without looking up.

"I just came here for coffee." He replied, waggling his cup at her. She was peeking at him from under her arm.

"That may be the case, but you don't have to stay." She pulled the binder out of her hair and let it fall over her shoulders.

"The company is better in here." He grinned as he drank his coffee. Holly smiled back and shook her head at him.

Donnie and April were huddled together in the corner, they were looking up random stuff on the Internet and talking quietly together. They seemed to be the only ones who had noticed that Holly and Raph had been gone for a while now. They had assumed Raph had gone to his room, but when they saw Holly leave the training room followed a few moments later by Raph, they started getting suspicious.

"Do you think something is going on there?" Donnie asked in a hushed voice.

"Oh yeah," April nodded enthusiastically. "I'd bet my allowance on it."

Donatello bit his lip, he was dying to know something. "Do you think it could work for them?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it?" April frowned at him.

"Well, technically, they're not even the same species. I know that we're all part human, but we're mostly turtle, and it's not like they could go out on dates, she couldn't introduce him to her family." He couldn't stop himself, he had been holding onto the doubts for so long now and although he tried to stay hopeful it was proving more and more difficult.

"Would you relax, geese. None of that matters, love always finds a way." April sighed happily to her self, she really was a hopeless romantic at heart. Besides, who didn't like to see their friends happy?

Donnie wasn't convinced, but he had to admit, it was nice to hear that someone else felt the same as he did. Now if he could just get her to see him the same way he saw her. Sitting this close to April was a rare thing, and he was savoring every minute. He could feel the heat from her body warming his cool green skin, and he could smell her hair. It smelled like her shampoo and some of her natural scent was hidden in there too. Sometimes he wished he was as bold as Raph, he always seemed to do or say whatever he wanted without fear. Clearly he was getting further with Holly in the few short months they had known each other than he had with April.

Donatello sneaked a quick glance at April, she was back to watching the Internet videos they had been laughing at a moment ago. She might be able to brush off their conversation, but he couldn't. It was different from her point of view, she was human. Donnie needed a second opinion. He stood up hastily and passed the laptop off to April.

"Hey! Where are you going?" She frowned at the back of his head.

"Just to the kitchen." He said over his shoulder. Donnie marched passed his brothers into the kitchen, Holly and Raph were talking and laughing together. A wave of jealousy passed through his body, but he let it go immediately. It wasn't their fault that he was shy. "Hey Holly, could I talk to you for a moment?"

"Of course, is everything ok? She asked worriedly.

"I just need you opinion on something." Donnie replied, "Could you give us a moment?" He turned to Raph, Donnie didn't really want his brother in on this discussion.

"What's the big deal? I'm smart too you know?" Raph scowled.

"This is April related, isn't it?" Holly asked, Donnie nodded. "Get lost Raph." She turned to see him now scowling at her. "Trust me, you probably don't want to be involved in this." He still didn't move, he just intensified his expression in defiance. "Alright, but I did warn you. If your ok talking in front of him then go ahead."

Donnie was hesitant, he didn't exactly feel comfortable talking about this with Raph present, but he continued anyway. "Well, April and I were talking about, uh, people dating and she seems to think that it doesn't matter if the two people are extremely different, if they really do love each other everything will work it's self out." He paused for a moment hoping she understood fully.

"Oh Jesus," Holly rubbed her eyes under her glasses. "Raph, are you sure you want to stay for this?"

"Yeah, why?" He lifted his mug to his lips to drink.

"They were talking about you and me." She stated it bluntly since there was no way to make this any less awkward. Raph nearly choked, his face lost all traces of humor or sarcasm, he looked between his younger brother and the young woman next to him. He could stay and hear what her thoughts were on a non-traditional relationship, but it could be something he would not be happy to hear.

He took a deep calming breath, "I'm good right here."

"Alright." Holly also took a breath, why did everyone want to talk about this today? "I would love to be as optimistic as April is, the ideal that love trumps everything is a comforting notion, Unfortunately I am far more realistic than that." She took another slow breath, Raphs face remained stoney. "Love and relationships take work, they're not easy, regardless of who's involved. Just look at my parents, 12 years of trying and it still didn't work. However you have to decided if all the good times together outweighs the bad, and if they do then maybe it's worth fighting for." She stole a quick look over at Raph, he was staring at a spot on the wall just behind her.

"I suppose so." Donnie said thoughtfully. "But don't you think circumstances change when it does come down to the fact that were not the same?"

"It does make things harder, yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. There's nothing worse than not knowing what could have been." She watched Donnie thinking, she almost felt bad for him. Clearly he had been worrying about this for a while and was wrestling with himself trying to make a decision. "Relax would you, you don't have to do anything right now."

Donnie chuckle, he was over thinking things. "Thanks." He smiled at Holly, then looked at Raph. "I'll leave you guys alone then."

"Actually, I had better get going." Holly said standing from the table.

"What? Why?" Raph snapped out of his little fantasy and back to reality.

"Well, I haven't showered since yesterday morning before training and our little adventure, and I don't have any clean clothes to change into here." She raised one eyebrow at him and gave him a cheeky grin. "I'll see you guys later." Holly said goodbye to everyone else and headed home alone.

Raph sat on the couch with the rest of his family and April. Conversation babbled around him but he didn't pay attention, he was thinking about what Holly had told Donatello. There was no way she actually though any kind of relationship could really happen between Donnie and April, did she? But if she did, then surely the same logic would apply to him. Raph hid himself behind a comic, and started to think about what could possibly be.


	14. Chapter 14

April walked home by herself after her training session with Splinter. She had been kind of bummed that Holly had gone home early, but she could understand. Holly had sent here a text letting her know what had happened earlier when she had found out her mom was not coming home. April was giddy that it had been Raph to help her feel better, and from what Holly had said they had taken another step forward in their relationship.

However, as happy as she was for her friends, she couldn't help but wonder what was happening with her and Donnie. Holly had asked what was going on between them a while ago, but she hadn't brought it up since. To be honest she couldn't even answer the question herself. She knew Donnie had a crush on her, that much was obvious, and she knew she felt closer to him than she did the others. But did that count as love? She was only sixteen, her aunt kept telling her she was too young to know what love was, maybe she was right.

April walked through the door to her aunts house and called out to see if anyone was home.

"In here dear." Came a reply. "How was your weekend?"

"It was good, we watched some old movies." April dumped her bag of clothes on the floor.

"Sounds like fun, are you hungry?" Aprils aunt asked.

"Yeah I could eat."

"Ok well go get cleaned up and I'll make you some dinner."

April threw her dirty clothes into the laundry room and rushed upstairs to shower. Once she was in fresh clothes, she ran downstairs and ate with her only relative left in the city.

"Can I ask you a question?" April said suddenly.

"Of course you can, what's up?" Aprils aunt chuckled slightly.

"How can you tell if you like someone as more than just a friend?" April spoke quietly and talked to her plate, she pushed her last bite around her plate nervously.

"What's brought this on? Have you met a boy? Oh, come on spill it!" Her aunt was giddy, bouncing slightly as she scooted closer to her only niece.

April sighed, "Well, there is a guy, but I don't really know if I like him that way or not."

"Does he like you?"

"Yeah, he's shy though, so he hasn't actually made a move." April smiled slightly thinking about all the times Donnie had stumbled over his words or been embarrassed by his brothers because of this.

"Well, do you like spending time with him?" Aprils aunt asked. April nodded. "Do you think about him when your not together?" Again, April nodded. "Is he kind and does he look out for you?"

"You have no idea." April said with a big smile.

"Ok, one last question, do you feel happy when your with him and thinking about him?" Aprils aunt had a grin on here face now too, she could see that April liked this boy even if she couldn't see it herself.

April didn't answer, she didn't need to.

The two girls sat around talking about boys for a while, April asked her aunt about her first boyfriend and they laughed when her aunt told her how long it had taken the boy to ask her out. April and her aunt painted their nails and ate ice cream while watching some chick flicks until the sun went down, April decided she should probably head upstairs and make a start on her homework. She bade her aunt goodnight just incase she decided to go to bed before April, and headed upstairs to her room.

Once there, she threw herself on her bed, it was nice to lay on her own bed for a change, two nights on the turtle boys couch was starting to hurt her back. She rolled over and grabbed her phone out of her bag, checking to see if anyone had messages her. She had one message from Donnie. She opened the message, it was just asking if she got home ok? She quickly typed a response since she had been home for nearly four hours now. She smiled to herself again knowing that he was worried about her.

Her phone buzzed in her hand and she opened the new message, it was Donnie again, "Good, I was just about to start worrying" there was a little smiley emoticon at the end of the message and April laughed. She decided she would give him a quick call, she didn't really like texting unless she was somewhere quiet, like at school or the movies. She pulled up his number and connected the call.

"Hello?" His voice came through and April smiled again, she had been doing that a lot today.

"Hey, I just thought I'd call you so you know I really am home, how's it going?" April asked.

"Oh fine, I'm just sitting in the lab."

"What are you working on?" she asked curiously. He was always working on something.

"Im drawing up designs for a turtle van." He sounded excited.

"You'll have to show me later." there was a slight pause, April thought Donnie had put down the phone.

"Really?" He sounded surprised.

"Yeah! I think it's great your always designing and building stuff." She laughed down the phone at him.

On the other end of the line, Donnie blushed. He wasn't used to people actually caring what he was doing. Mikey always wanted to touch and break his things, and Raph just didn't care unless it was something he could use. Leo was always encouraging but he never really asked what he was doing, he was more interested in the final results.

"I'd be more than happy to show you." Both teens smiled into their phones, "Oh hey! Did you hear what happened today between Raph and Holly today?" April said excitedly.

"No, what happened?" Donnie asked. April filled him in on all the juicy details she had gotten from Holly earlier that day. "He was unusually happy today." Then he remembered the conversation he had dragged them into. "Oh gees, I probably really embarrassed them today."

"Why?" April asked frowning slightly.

"Well, you know the conversation we had earlier?" Donnie asked sheepishly.

"Yeah?" She replied

"Well, I was going to ask Holly her opinion, and Raph wouldn't leave the room, so..." He trailed off not really wanting to explain too much.

"Did she say anything? Did he say anything?" April sat up straight on her bed.

"She had plenty to say, he just sat there and didn't say a word." Donnie sighed.

"Huh, oh well. I guess I had better let you go for now, I have to get some homework done tonight." April looked over at her stack of books, she really didn't want to do here homework.

"Alright, if you need any help just give me a call."

"I will, thanks for looking out for me, goodnight." April said.

"I'll always be there for you." He said without thinking. "I mean, you know, for homework and stuff." He giggled nervously.

"I know." She smiled again, he was so cute when he was nervous. "Goodnight Donnie."

"Goodnight April." The two teens hung up on each other and both sighed to themselves. April grabbed a text book and threw it onto her bed, she should at least try and get some work done.

Donatello put his new phone down and face palmed himself, he could be an idiot sometimes. He looked back at his designs on the table, they were nearly finished then he could start building. He stood from his table and walked out into the living space. His brothers were all waiting for him to go out and do their patrol.

"We've need waiting for like an hour, what have you been doing?" Raph said irritatedly.

"Working, not that you would know anything about that." Donnie said back tartly. Raph glared at him and took a breath to argue back.

"Chill out you two, we have more important things to do." Leo stepped between his two brothers and scowled at them. They needed to get top side, the cool air and wide open spaces would take the edge off everyone. They had been cooped up for far too long together.

As the four boys climbed up to the rooftops, the warm summer air whipped their mask tails around. They ran and leapt across the city sky line, heading back to the fortune cookie factory once more. They caught sight of a few of the thugs walking the streets clearly looking for something to steal.

The turtles followed them silently from high above, the goons shoved each other around laughing loudly. They stopped for a moment to terrorize some poor old man, but they moved on soon enough that Leo decided it was unnecessary to intervene. After a few more moments of shoving and laughing obnoxiously, the group made their way to their destination.

The four turtle ninjas crouched silently above the factory, a whole platoon of gang members were congregated outside the factory doors. The boys looked at each other worriedly, something was going on here.

"Let's go in for a closer look." Leo whispered. The others nodded. They crept around the buildings, not drawing attention to themselves. They made their way over to the skylight and cracked it open, Leo and Donnie slid through the crack and lowered themselves carefully to a girder. Inside were more Purple dragon members, and Stockman.

"Alright, settle down." Stockman yelled over the babble. The gang members didn't settle down, they just laughed at Stockman, who in turn stomped his feet and huffed like a child. The gang members roared with laughter.

"Shut your traps or I'll shut them for you." A gruff voice boomed out over the rabble and silence fell immediately. "You had all better stop messing around, I'm getting tired of all the failures."

"Great," Leo whispered. "Dog Pound is involved here too." Donatello had a look on his face that matched Leo's thoughts exactly.

"Even though those wretched turtles destroyed my Mousers," Stockman balled his fists in rage, "All hope is not lost. I recovered a computer chip that is far more advanced that anything available in mainstream society today."

"Uh oh." Was all Donnie could say. Leo shot him a warning look, and Donnie could only grimace in reply. It was his chip.

"I have examined the chip and think I can start manufacturing my own version this week ." Stockman paused expecting some kind of recognition for his work, when none came he continued his little speech. "Thanks to the turtles interference I should be able to make my next generation at mousers far more sophisticated, even smart enough to learn while they are hunting." He rubbed his hands together excitedly, if this worked he would be able to sell the designs to a pest control company for billions.

"I don't care about your stupid hobby," Bellowed the gigantic dog man. "You should be focusing on finding and destroying the turtles." Dog Pound balled his enormous fists. "All of you should be looking for them."

The gang members all shrank back, they were starting to regret choosing a life of crime. They either got beat up by the turtles, or they would get annihilated by the mutant who had declared himself their boss. Either way, they were going to get hurt.

"Get out there and find those wretched turtles, I don't care how you do it." Dog pound growled at the group. The Purple Dragons rushed around, bumping into each other trying to grab their gear for tonight's crime spree.

Leo had heard enough, he and Donatello climbed back up to the roof to meet their brothers. Mikey and Raph were keeping an eye on the gang members as they fanned out from the factory. They saw dozens of them traveling in groups of three or four moving in every direction.

"This is bad, we cant let them do this." Mikey said once Leo and Donnie were back.

"We may not have a choice, they're looking for us on Dog Pounds orders." Leo quickly filled in the others on what had just happened. Mikey looked worried, Raph looked mad.

"That makes this worse, people are going to suffer because of us." Raph hated this. Innocent people might get hurt, and though they could try to help, they couldn't help everyone.

"What do you suggest we do? We can't stop them all Raph." Leo sympathized, he didn't like this any more than Raph, but what could they do?

"We have to try." Mikey said softly.

Leo looked at his siblings expression, they ranged from Mikey who looked down right depressed to Raph who's green eyes burned with determination. Donnie just stood with his shoulders hunched with a guilty look on his face. Leo put an arm around his shoulders, "Alright, well split up and take out as many purple dragons as we can. If you can avoid a fight that would be best, and be careful."

Raph cracked his knuckles, "Lets do this." The turtle boys all sprang up and dashed off to take care of business.

Holly had been doing her laundry for most of the day. She had been lounging around in her pajamas and had been reading her books to pass the time. She had been sitting in the buildings laundry room for the last ten minutes now waiting for the dryer to finish its cycle. She hated doing laundry, there was only one laundry room in the building and it was in the basement.

The dryer beeped and Holly looked up from her book, "Finally." She grabbed the last load out of the drum and stuffed it into the basket at her feet. She made sure she had her keys, then left the laundry room and walked over to the elevator. She jabbed the up button and waited.

As the elevator started moving up, it stopped on the ground floor to let someone on, probably one of the other tenants. Holly knew most of the people in the building, granted there were only about eight apartments on each floor, but since she only saw them in the elevators she was doing pretty good. The doors opened, and a tall, skinny African American looking guy stepped on followed closely by an asian man in sunglasses. Holly resisted the urge to gasp, and simply stepped to the side of the elevator to make room for them.


	15. Chapter 15

Holly was having a hard time keeping her cool. Baxter Stockman had just stepped onto the elevator with one of the purple dragon members. She we that he had no idea who she was, but if she couldn't keep a straight face they would know something was going on.

The purple dragon guy was staring at Holly with an ugly sneer on his face, She wished she had put on a sweater. Instead she folded her arms across her chest and turned slightly so she was facing away from him.

"Leave the poor girl alone Fong." Stockman said without even looking at her, "We have more important things to think about."

The elevator came to a slow halt on Stockman's floor and the two men exited the small metal box, as the Asian man left he looked back at her over the top of his glasses and winked at her. Hollys face contorted in disgust, this guy must be at least ten years older than she was. The doors closed again and the elevator rose up one more floor. Holly opened her door and threw her laundry into the apartment, after grabbing a sweater she dashed over to the stairs and ran down them two at a time.

She peeked out of the stair well to make sure no one was on the landing and crept out to listen at Stockmans door. She stayed crouched by the wall just incase they could see a shadow under the door. She could only just hear their conversation, so she pressed her ear as close to the door as she dared.

"I have one left, it should work." Stockmans muffled voice came through the wooden door.

"Where do you want us to drop it?" Fong replied.

"Any sewer access, it will keep searching until it either finds those turtles or the battery runs low. It will keep track of all areas it has searched, recharge its self then start searching again where it left off." Stockman sounded giddy, he clapped his hands together excitedly.

Holly heard one set of footsteps fade away as someone walked deeper into the apartment. Holly couldn't hear any conversation anymore, she scooted a fraction of an inch closer trying to listen, but it was no use, she would have to wait for them to come back into a room closer to the door.

A short while later, Holly could hear muffled conversation again. Apparently Stockman had finished doing what ever he had been and was conversing with this Fong character again. She couldn't make out what was being said, there was some shuffling sounds and lots of mumbling, but nothing coherent.

"Take it back to the factory, I'll be able to work on it tomorrow." Stockmans voice was suddenly clear and both men were walking towards the door, Holly scrambled on the tip toes back to the stair well. It was a good job she only had socks on, shoes would have been too noisy.

Just as the fire escape door was closing, Fong walked out of Stockmans apartment carrying a duffel bag containing the last mouser unit. His eyes darted around checking the hall way, he started at the stair well door for a moment, he could have sworn it moved. After a moment, he decided it was probably nothing, and turned back to face his employer. "I'll leave it in the office, catch ya' later."

Holly was pressed up against the wall in the stair well, she had only just made it through the door in time. If someone were to look through the little window she should be ok, but if they opened the door she was busted. However, no one tried to come through the door so she decided to get back up stairs and let the turtles know what she had just heard.

Leonardo was currently following a group of Purple Dragon members by roof top, they had been walking for about twenty minutes and it seemed like they were just going in circles. He was getting tired of this, he almost just wanted to hop down and scare them a bit just to make sure they didn't try anything. He was just looking for the best place to really freak them out, when his T-phone beeped. It was a text from Holly, apparently Stockman had sent his last mouser back to the fortune cookie factory with one of the gang members. He was going to put the chip he had recovered from Donnie's phone into it and release it into the sewer.

He frowned at his phone and sent her a quick reply, he really didn't see how that was a big deal, it was just one mouser after all. A response came immediately, Stockman was planning to make it intelligent. If they lost it in the sewers they wouldn't find it until it found them. Leo sighed, they had better destroy it now while it was still a pile of junk. He sent her another message asking where it was now. She gave him the street numbers, he forwarded it to everyone else before he set off with a quick explanation of what was going on.

Raph had just finished scaring the pants off of some of the gang members who were beating up the blind sushi guy for protection money again. He didn't like it when people picked on others who were weaker or smaller than they were, so he decided to show them what it was like to be on the receiving end of a beating. He helped the old man back to his feet. "I really hope they learn not to come back this time."

"So do I. Thank you, I owe you a dinner." Murakami said.

"I'm going to take you up on that. Stay out of trouble, ok?" Raph shook the old mans hand. He left the restaurant and climbed back up to the roofs. Once there, he heard a beep from his phone. It was from Leo. Apparently, Holly had found out some information on Stockman and was now keeping an eye on the last mouser unit that needed destroying. Raph couldn't repress a smile, she wanted to help them so badly.

Since there weren't anymore Purple Dragon goons to beat up, Raph decided he would head over and meet up with Leo. If he was lucky, the would still be people there to punch. He raced across the skyline to the intersection Leo had texted him, and once he drew closer he saw Leo crouching behind a billboard a few buildings over.

"So, how's it going?" He asked his big brother once he was behind him.

"Ok, Holly has been following him and letting me know where he's going." Leo informed him.

"Well, let her know she can go home now. We can take it from here." Raph peered over the ledge, sure enough there she was, following Fong from a distance. She kept dipping behind walls, stoops and anything that provided cover.

"I will, I just want to see what she's capable of." Leo stated.

"What? She's not ready for this." Raph spluttered.

"I'll tell her to back off in a minute, this is a good learning experience for her." Leo waved his brother off, Raph really needed to chill out.

"Learning experience, she's only been training for a couple of months now. She shouldn't have to do our job because you want to see if she's capable of." Raph was furious, they had been training for 15 years and they still made mistakes. Neither of the girls were ready to actually take on any of their enemies.

"Calm down, I'll tell her were here now." Leo rolled his eyes. He knew there was more to this than just experience, but he didn't feel like arguing right now. He pulled out his phone and sent Holly a message letting her know she could go home if she wanted. They watched as she ducked behind some stone stairs to check her message, she looked up looking for them, and when she spotted them she smiled and gave a little wave.

Leo gave her a thumbs up, while Raph just glared at the back of his brothers blue bandana with his arms crossed. Holly checked around the corner to make sure the creepy Asian guy wasn't looking back behind him, he would definitely recognize her and if they figured out she was working with the turtles, she wouldn't be able to go home. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she stood up and ran across the street. Aprils house was much closer than her's was, she would stay there until they heard from the boys then take a cab home.

Raph watched her go, then turned back to his big brother. "If you want to see what they can do, watch them in the training room. Don't expect them to risk themselves for us." Raph turned his attention back to Fong, and followed him from above. Leo was stunned, Raph challenged his authority all the time, but this time he actually felt like he had done something wrong.

They followed Fong a little further until he was in a more secluded area of the city. Once he was just off the main streets, Leo landed a short distance in front of Fong, cutting off his path through the alley. "Do you just want to give up now?" He drew his swords slowly. "Or are we going to do this the hard way."

Fong turned to go back the way he had come, only to discovered that his way was blocked again, this time by Raph, who waggled his fingers smugly. He didn't try to run though, he had an ace up his sleeve. "You freaks won't get me this time." He pulled out his cell phone and pressed a button.

The wall next to Leo and Raph exploded outwards, a huge furry fist was producing out of a hole that crumbled away to reveal a seven foot tall, very angry looking Dog Pound.

"Knock, knock." he said melodramatically.

"Oh great." Raph said sarcastically, "This was so much easier than it should have been."

Dog Pound roared and charged the turtle teens, who jumped backwards in opposite directions. Leo launched himself back at the beast before him, he ducked under a massive forearm and went to slash at Dog pounds back. Unfortunately, another massive arm came around and caught Leo's arm mid swipe. He was lifted bodily and flung at the opposite wall, he managed to twist his body so he would hit the wall with his feet first.

Raph moved in behind his big brother, he ducked as Leo flew over his head and as Dog Pounds arm followed through, he popped up and kicked him in the ribs. Dog Pound stumbled, but didn't go down. He just swung in Raphs direction and growled. Leo and Raph stood next to each other facing down the big beast.

"So what's the plan oh courageous leader?" Raph asked.

"We need to get Fong, we don't have time for this." Leo looked around, Fong was no where to be found. "Did you see which way he went?"

"No, I was a little preoccupied." Raph replied. Dog Pound charged at them again, this time swinging for both turtles. Raph went high and Leo went low swiping out his legs, the two of them managed to send the slobbering monster head first into a dumpster.

"Let's get out of here" Leo shook his head, "if we can get up to the roof we might still be able to catch Fong." The two teens launched themselves up the nearest building before Dog Pound could get back to his feet. They searched the near by alleys, but there was no sign of him.

"Let's head over to the factory, Holly said that's where he was going. We're going to need Donnie and Mikey to take down Dog Pound" Leo said, Raph nodded and they raced to catch up with Fong.


	16. Chapter 16

April was walking home with her arms laden with bags, her aunt had sent her out to pick up some take out since she didn't feel like cooking. She was about four blocks away when a group of men dressed in black came out of one of the alleys up ahead of her. They we're busy punching each other in the arm to really notice her, however one of them nudged the others and matching grins spread along their faces.

April tried to ignore them, but they blocked her way. "Excuse me." She said looking at each of them closely incase she had to pick them out of a line up later. They just snickered and refused to yield.

"Empty your pockets girly." One of the men said, cracking his knuckles.

"I don't have any money you know." She lowered her bags to the floor slowly, and fished out her phone and the little change she had from her jean shorts and held it out for the goons to see. "This is all I have."

"Well take it, and your dinner too." Two of the creeps grabbed her belongings, while the other two jerks shoved her to the ground. They all laughed and carried on past her.

"You really shouldn't pick on helpless girls you know." April recognized that voice, it was enough to put a smile on here face.

"Yeah, they're our favorite people to save." another voice piped up from the dark alley beside the little group of men.

"Oh yeah and what are you gonna' do about it." Asked one of the more stupid gang members.

Two of the turtle boys hopped out of the shadows, one was tall and lanky, the other shorter with a speckled face. Both wore matching grins as they stood facing the group of Purple dragon members.

"Hey it's the turtles!" The same idiot yelled, "Quick, someone call the boss."

"Don't bother," Another, more seasoned gang member replied. "Trust me lets just get out of here."

"Ah ah ah, drop her stuff." Mikey waggled one finger at them.

None of the gang members moved, they just stared the two green teens down in silence, they didn't want go back to the hide out empty handed, the boss would be pissed. Instead they gripped onto her phone and bags tighter.

"Alright, we'll do this the hard way." Donatello said. He thrust the end of his Bo staff into the gut of one the biggest, stupidest looking one. Mikey popped up and onto the shoulders of a stunned purple dragon member, he was even more stunned when one end of Mikey's nun chuck clocked him in the head. As the big oaf fell, Mikey jumped and dove over another gang member and took him out by the legs with a quick side swipe.

The last guy was smarter than the rest, he tried running down the street clutching the cellphone and pocket change he had taken from the red headed girl. Donnie and Mikey looked at each other with a smirk, Mikey flicked the extending chain out and hooked the escaping man around the legs. Mikey dragged the man back by the ankles, and he and Donnie just looked down on him while he tried to cower pitifully on the floor.

"Here, here, just take it. It's not worth it." He covered his head with his hands, just incase the mutants decided to hurt him some more.

Donnie just snatched Aprils phone out of the trembling mans hand, "Just get out of here." All four of the men scrambled to get away form the turtles.

April chuckled from behind Donnie, "That was perfect timing."

"Here you go, I hope it didn't get busted in the struggle." Donnie said handing April her phone.

"It's no big deal, it's just a phone." April frowned slightly, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Making sure the locals are safe." Donnie winked at her.

"Well, thanks. I had better get home though, I'll see you guys...Holly?" April saw the other girl come dashing down the street towards her. She looked a little ruffled and she was wearing pajama pants. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah its fine. Leo and Raph are, hopefully, destroying the last mouser unit." Holly said.

"How do you know that?" April bent down to pick up the bag of take out.

"Stockman and Fong got on the elevator with me so I figured I'd make sure they weren't up to anything. Oh, and I was hoping I could hang with you for a while, your place is closer than mine." Holly gave a cheeky smile.

"Yeah that's fine, here you can carry this." April handed Holly the bag

"Where did Leo and Raph say they were heading?" Donnie asked

"They were following Fong last I saw them, they're probably heading back to the factory since that's where he's going." Holly informed them.

"Aright, we'll head that way now." Donnie said, "All of us will stop by later to let you know what happens."

"Later girls." Mikey said. Donnie just waved before they took off after their big brothers.

"Come on, my aunt will be worried if I don't get home soon." The girls started walking, luckily they were only a few blocks away from Aprils house.

Donatello and Michelangelo made their way across the city, the factory wasn't that far from where they had bumped into April so it only took a few minutes to get there. However, when they did arrive there was no sign of Leo of Raph.

"Maybe they're just not here yet." Mikey offered as he peeked over the ledge at the factory. Most of the Purple Dragon members were no longer there, the few they had managed to stop had probably gone home with their pride battered and bruised.

"Weren't they supposed to be following Fong?" Donnie reminded himself.

"Yeah, why?" Mikey asked.

"Isn't that him?" Donnie pointed down to a man who had just come around the corner at the end of the ally. He was carrying a big duffel bag and kept checking behind himself nervously.

"Lets go." Mikey said and launched himself over the ledge to the street below. Donnie sighed, but followed him down.

The unsuspecting Fong jumped when the two ninja turtles landed in front of him. He clutched the duffel bag closer since now he was on his own. "Back off weirdoes." He yelled, sounding much braver than he felt.

"Weirdoes? You should check a mirror some time." Mikey replied, laughing at his own snappy comeback.

Donnie rolled his eyes at his little brother, he could be a moron sometimes. "Just had over the bag and we won't have to hurt you."

"No way! The other two didn't get it and neither will you." Fong bolted for the factory door. Donnie and Mikey rushed after him. They burst through the door onto the pitch black factory floor, Fong was nowhere to be seen. The two teens blinked, trying to get their eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness, they exchanged a glance and set off into the factory together.

Leo and Raph had managed to get back to the factory without running into Dog Pound again, they hadn't managed to catch up to Fong though, so they assumed he must be inside already. They climbed back into the factory using the same skylight they had been the last two times they were here, hopefully the Purple Dragons wouldn't realize this was how they were getting in, or they might try and weld the windows shut.

It was almost completely black inside the factory, the only light came from the mandatory exit signs, and the dull grey light coming trough the grubby windows of the skylight. Leo could see movement on the lower floor, one of them had to be Fong and hopefully the others were Donnie and Mikey.

Donatello knew he had to find the light controls, he moved through the maze of conveyor belts and heavy machinery looking for a control panel. He heard Mikey stub his toe on something, he was cursing and was hopping around bumping into things making a whole lot of noise. So much for a stealthy approach.

Raph had made his way over to the railing of the upper level of the factory, he could see the shadow of something moving below him. He knew it wasn't Mikey, he was on the other side of the room bumping into boxes and chains, however it was providing a great distraction. He silently moved until he was directly above the person and launched himself at them.

"Get off me!" Fong yelled.

"Got you now, you think your so smart, don't you?" Raph clung to the squirming man, he was still a little annoyed at the fact that he had gotten the better of them earlier.

"You'll pay for this." Fong fought as best as he could, but he was scrawny compared to the creature who held him. There was no way he could overpower Raph.

"Quit whining, now where did you put the mouser?" Leo dropped down next to his brother and poked Fong sharply in the shoulder.

"You won't find it, and I won't tell." Fong said bravely.

"Stop being so melodramatic, and Donnie could we get some lights in here?" Leo looked around trying to spy his intelligent brother through the darkness.

"I'm working on it." Donnie's voice came back from Leo's left. Leo shook his head into the darkness, this was getting silly.

A huge crashing noise came from above the boys heads, the skylight had been ripped out completely and a huge hulking figure had jumped down into the factory. The city lights poured into the grubby factory throwing highlights onto all the metal surfaces. Dog pound dropped down between Raph and Leo swinging wildly in the half-light, Raph had to let go of Fong to brace for the huge fore-arm that was rushing towards his abdomen. He flew across the factory and smashed into the far wall. Raph slid down the wall with a groan, rubbing his head when he got to the bottom.

"The lights, Donnie the lights!" Leo yelled ducking under Dog Pounds other arm.

Donatello searched frantically for the switch on the control panels in front of him. His fingers finally closed around something that felt like a light switch, so he flipped it up. Fluorescent bulbs flickered on in hanging fixtures, they glowed softly as they warmed up, steadily getting brighter with each passing moment.

Mikey and Leo were dodging and weaving keeping Dog Pound busy, they danced just out of reach so that the mutant dog had to keep swinging wildly while chasing them around the floor. Donnie spied Fong crawling beneath one of the conveyor belly trying to look inconspicuous. Donnie grabbed the pathetic man by the lapels and hoisted him out from under the belt.

"I'm only going to ask once, where is the bag?" Donnie glared at Fong, he was getting tired of these games. Fong just pointed at a row of lockers lining one wall of the factory with a trembling finger. Donatello dragged the scrawny twig over to the lockers and raised an eyebrow at him. Mikey flew through the air being them, wailing and flailing all the way.

Fong opened one of the lockers and pulled out the black duffel bag. Donnie snatched it away and opened it up, the shiny exoskeleton of the mouser glinted from out of the black fabric.

"I got it guys," Donnie yelled to his brothers with a smile. His face fell when he saw the mess his brothers were in, they were getting swatted like flies. "You guys, let's go."

Leo turned to see Donnie holding the bag with the mouser in it. He and the other two turtles broke away from Dog pound and dashed back up to the destroyed skylight. Dog pound didn't follow them, he just looked around for Fong who was still cowering on the floor. He shot the sniveling man a disgusted look, he hated how pathetic these men were.

After making a few false turns incase they were being followed, the turtle boys started to make their way over to Aprils apartment. Donnie had the mouser on his back as they made their way over the roof tops, and was surprised to see the girls already waiting for them on top of Aprils place.

"Hey did you guys get it?" April asked eagerly.

"You had better believe it." Donnie said happily. April gave Donnie an unexpected hug which he returned willingly. When she let go of him she high-fived Mikey and the other two turtles in turn.

"You guys are awesome." She laughed as Mikey flexed both his muscled and his ego.

"Nice work," Holly heard a voice at her side. Raph had slid in just behind her and was speaking quietly.

"Thanks." She replied. "It was lucky I was in the elevator when I was."

"Yeah, but didn't you have time to change before you ran out of the house?" Raph pointed at her pajama pants, he just now noticed they had a popular children's cartoon character all over them.

"Shut up." she punched him in the arm, "And no, I didn't. If I would have changed I would have lost that creepy Fong dude." She folded her arms and leaned to one side.

"We had probably better go, we need to destroy that thing before we can go home." Leo said.

"What? You can't do that. Think of what we could learn from this thing." Donnie protested.

"Like what?" Raph asked, "How good Stockman is at soldering?"

"Oh, nice burn." Raph and Holly fist bumped.

"No. But I can use it to see exactly where he is getting his components from and then I can use that information to keep tabs on if he's building more robots." Donnie looked smug.

"I don't know dude," Mikey looked skeptical, "The regular mousers were bad enough, imagine how bad a super mouser will be."

"It's fine, this one doesn't even have a chip in it. It can't function fully without one." Donnie was determined, he knew he could gain valuable information in the mouser unit.

"But it can still function?" Leo asked.

"It can turn on, but without the processing chip it can't do anything."

"Are you sure Donnie?" April asked, she wanted to believe him.

"Holly heard Stockman say he was going to put the chip in tomorrow, right?" he turned to her looking for support.

"Technically, yes." She replied hesitantly.

"So what's the big deal? I'll take it apart as I study it, it will be just as destroyed as if we smashed it, but we could learn something about our enemy at the same time." He was getting desperate, and there was a hint of it in his tone.

Leo sighed, Donnie was giving him the same puppy dog look Mikey always used, although it wasn't quite as well practiced. "Alright, but you make sure it's out of commission, or I'll let Raph have it."

"Deal." Donnie was ecstatic.

The turtle boys bade the girls a good night, and made sure they were safely back in Aprils bedroom before turning to head home themselves. Donnie unloaded the mouser onto one of his many work benches as soon as he got back to his bedroom, and immediately started making notes and taking measurements of the little robot in front of him. After a couple of hours work, he started getting sleepy and so decided to continue his work in the morning.

As the turtle slept, a red led light started blinking in the darkness. A mechanical iris buzzed to life on the two legged machine and auto-focused in the dark.

* * *

A quick thanks to FanO'theNinja for pointing out my silly error, I'll have to go back and correct that as soon as possible! I've been a little distracted lately so I haven't been able to write as frequently as I'd like, and apparently I forgot where I was for a moment.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions I will take them into consideration. I am planning to do a little romantic chapter as suggested, so feel free to let me know if there's something you would like to read!


	17. Chapter 17

Donatello woke up fully energized and ready to get to work, he had drawn up the exterior schematics for the mouser last night and was going to start taking it apart today. Plus, since April was going to be over later, he wanted to get it done sooner rather than later. After grabbing a quick cup of coffee, Donnie headed back into his lab. He sat facing the mouser and pulled out some tools he could use to take it apart.

After an hour or so, Donnie had the mousers outer layer removed. The skin had proven troublesome to get off, it was layered like scales so finding a weak spot had been difficult, but perseverance had payed off and now all the panels were laid out on the table. The guts of the mouser were all neat and tidy, the wires were all tucked neatly into specific groves and were covered for protection. Donnie took a small screw driver and started moving some of the wires around. Something mechanical clicked deep in the tangles of wires.

"What the..?" Donnie said to himself. He poked the mousers wires around some more trying to figure our what had just happened. He leaned in closer, brows knitted together in confusion. The mouser unit launched its self at Donnie's face, he squealed and toppled backwards off his chair. The mouser turned to look at the stunned turtle know lying on his back and screeched at him, it then turned back to the door that lead out to the living room and bolted.

Donnie didn't move for a moment, his brain was having trouble processing what had just happened. The mouser shouldn't be doing what it was doing. He flipped himself over and ran out after the little robot. He burst into the living room scanning the room frantically for the mouser.

"Did you see it?" Donnie yelled at his brothers.

"See what?" Leo asked from the couch.

"The mouser." Donnie replied like they should know.

"Why would we? It's been in your room all night." Raph said from the far side of the room.

"Well, it kind of activated its self and ran off." Donnie ended lamely. He was going to get so much grief for this.

"It what?" Leo yelled.

"Dude, you said it wouldn't work." Mikey jumped up on the couch.

"It wasn't supposed to be able to, I checked." Donnie scratched his head. This was the second time he had underestimated Baxter Stockman, there wasn't going to be a third.

"Well, clearly you didn't check hard enough." Raph said, he dropped his comic and launched himself over the living area to a shadowy corner of the lair. The mouser darted form between his legs and headed for the entrance. But Leo was there to cut it off.

"What's it doing?" Leo asked. The mouser ran and hid under behind their tv stand, Mikey peeked at it, and when he went to grab it, it snapped at his fingers.

"It's trying to get back to Stockman, it must have some basic programming that kicks in if someone tries to tamper with the unit." Donnie scratched his chin. The mouser scurried around the room, ducking under chairs and tables, evading the boys attempts at catching it.

"Would you just catch it already." Raph yelled at his brother in purple. "You just had to keep it, didn't you?"

"The information we could gain could be priceless." Donnie snapped back.

"Stop squabbling and catch it." Leo yelled at his brothers.

Mikey had the mouser trapped behind the television set, it was backed up against the wall and snapped at any fingers that got too close. He sucked on his finger that had received a nip, "It's tasted blood!" He yelled through his fist.

"Quit fooling around and grab it." Leo was getting annoyed.

"Grab what?" April asked as she and Holly walked through the entry way.

"April!" Donnie shouted happily, all thoughts of the mouser disappearing for a moment.

"That stupid mouser, it's running around the lair." Raph didn't even turn around, there was work to do.

"How?" Asked Holly.

"It probably has a simple built in command that activates if someone tries to tamper with the mechanics. It's trying to go back to Stockman." Donnie explained.

"Then it's probably recording what it's seeing," There was a pause as everyone looked at Holly. "If I were a crazy mad man I would want to know who stole my stuff." She shrugged at the group.

"We can't risk that information getting back to stockman, especially now we know he working with the Foot." Leo shook his head. "Raph, have at it."

"It's about damn time." Raph drew his Sais and motioned that Mikey should move away from the television, allowing the mouser to come out. The mouser launched its self out of its hiding spot, mikey squealed and ducked as the little robot used his shell as a spring board, flying over the sofa and soaring for the exit. Raph threw one of his Sais, it span end over end until it connected with the mouser, the force of his throw buried the sai into the concrete wall where the mouser was pinned. It struggled and squealed trying to get free but it was useless. Raph smiled smugly.

"You missed." Leo said.

"Donnie wanted it in one price right?" Raph asked.

"But I don't." Leo replied shortly.

"Not a problem." Holly had pulled out her compound bow from its carrying case and had loaded an arrow. She pulled back, took aim and fired. The arrow whistled slightly as it sailed through the air, and it sank deep into the mousers head. The robot sparked, whirred and died pinned against the wall. "I figured I would bring you guys this. It's not like I can use it in the city, and it works much better than the one you have here."

"Oh cool" Mikey sprang up and rushed over to Holly, she gave him her bow and watched him draw it back, getting a feel for the tension. "Can I try shooting it?"

"Sure, it's yours now." She couldn't help but smile at the look on the youngest turtles face. Mikey rushed off to the training room. "Just be careful with it." Holly yelled after him. She and Raph walked over to the mouser to retrieve their belongings. There was one light left blinking inside the head of the mechanical creature, but it faded slowly until it too winked out. After handing the dead robot to Donnie, they followed the rest of the group into the other room to watch Mikey.

"Wow, that's awesome!" He yelled. He took another shot, and another, celebrating happily after each one.

"Here, let me have a go." Leo stood and Mikey gave him the bow. Leo took aim and pulled the string back, and again, the arrow flew straight and true and smacked into the target with a satisfying thunk. "That's incredible."

"It should be, it was top of the line when I bought it." Holly said. "And I take very good care of my possessions."

April and Holly watched as the turtles each took a turn shooting at the targets, April even tried.

"Ok, draw back the bow, take a deep breath and release on the exhale." Holly tried to explain to the red head.

April did as she was told, but when she let go of the arrow, it sailed past the target and into the back wall. April frowned, and tried again. She drew back the bow, took a breath, exhaled and released, but once again the arrow missed the target and hit the wall.

Donatello stood up and moved over to the frustrated girl. He walked around her scratching his chin. "Do it again." April frowned at him.

"What is he..." Raph started, but Holly clamped her hand over his mouth and pressed a finger to her lip. This could get close and personal.

April gave him a look, but did as he asked. She loaded and arrow and drew back the bow.

"Don't lock out your elbow, use your muscle to hold it steady." Donnie said. April adjusted her grip. Donnie walked behind her, examining her posture. He gently took hold of her shoulders and pulled back, making her stand up straighter. "Also, hold your shoulders back, it'll open up your chest. And hold your other elbow up, but not too high." Donnie put one hand under her right elbow and his other hand held her wrist straight.

April noticed that Donnie was standing very close behind her, if she were to lean back she would bump into him. Her heart rate climbed as he wrapped his fingers around her wrist, his hands were so much bigger than hers. She felt his other hand steadying the arm that held back the arrow. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves.

"Now, take your time, breath and release." He practically whispered to her, it sent goosebumps all the way down her spine and on into her toes. After one more deep, cleansing breath, she let go of the string.

April didn't even look at the target, she was too busy noticing that her favorite turtle still had ahold of her wrist. His other hand had moved up her arm and was resting on her shoulder.

"Nice shooting Tex." Holly said with a very smug tone in her voice.

April jumped slightly, she had forgotten the others were there. She looked at the target, she had actually done quite well. Her arrow was in the target, just outside of the red center circle.

"Hey, I hit it!" She jumped up happily and beamed up at Donnie, who smiled back at her with his trademark gap toothed grin.

"Nice work." He said softly to her. She blushed slightly and tuned away from the group so they wouldn't see her big dopey grin.

Mikey, Holly and Raph all started to walk towards the door that lead back to the living room, they were arguing about who could get the new high score on the pinball machine and had even started making bets as to who could get the most points with a single ball. But just as they reached the door, Master Splinter slid it open from the other side.

"I have been looking for you, my sons. I see the girls are here also." He glanced briefly at each of the six teens in the room. They all had smiles on their faces.

"They were all trying out the bow I brought over." Holly said cheerily.

"Well, since you all seem to be keen on practicing, why don't we have a real training session?" Splinter chuckled to himself.

Mikey and Raph groaned, which earned them each a painful pinch from their sense. Splinter hooked the two turtles under the jaw and dragged them into the room. The other teens chuckled.

"I guess well see you guys later then." April said, she started walking over to Holly when Master Splinter spoke up again.

"Actually, I was thinking it might be time for you to join the others for training."

"Um..." Said Holly.

"Well..." Mimicked April

"Yeah!" Yelled Mikey. Everyone looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "What? I'm the only one who's excited?" He shrugged.

"I don't know, I'm not that great, and I already feel self conscious when it's just us." Holly twisted the end of her shirt around her fingers as she spoke to the floor.

"Awe come on, it'll be fun." Leo said.

"Yeah, for you." Holly bit back. But April grabbed her arm and dragged her off to change.

The girls returned to find the turtles already kneeling before Master Splinter. April bowed before entering and moved to sit next to Donnie, who gave her a quick smile out of the corner of his eye. Holly also bowed in respect, but she was much slower to take a seat at the other end of the row. Her face was stoney as she looked up at the old rat who looked down at his pupils.


	18. Chapter 18

April was thoroughly enjoying her first training session with the rest of the group, they had done their usual warm up of stretches and some strength training. She was surprised at how many sit ups she could do now, and had even had a silent contest with Donnie to see who could do more. He won naturally, but it was still fun to try and keep up. They had then worked on their forms and had tried some new routines, the only thing she was struggling with was a spinning kick. She kept falling over.

"I just don't get it. How do you stay upright?" She said from the floor.

"You have to lean back on your heel, your momentum will carry you around and pull you back upright." Leo explained to her, he then showed her one more time how to do it. "See?"

"Well obviously I see, but doing it is more difficult." She let him pull her back to her feet.

"Just keep trying and you'll get it." Leo said encouragingly. There was a yelp and a thud from the other side of the room. April turned to see Holly sprawled on the mats, just as she had been a moment ago. She sat up and rubbed her elbow groaning slightly, Mikey and Donnie chuckled.

"Something funny?" Holly glared at them.

"Do you have any idea how many times we fell over learning this stuff?" Donnie said through his gap tooth smile.

"Yeah, Raph knocked himself out when he hit his head learning how to do flips." Mikey laughed.

Raph smacked him on the back of the head, "I'll knock you out if your not careful." He crossed his arms and sulked.

"It's ok Raph, at least you weren't dropped on your head as a baby." Holly covered her mouth playfully like she hadn't meant to say anything. Raph and Donnie laughed while Mikey pouted. "I'm just kidding Mikey, I'm sorry." Holly climbed to her feet and started her routine over.

Master Splinter was watching everyone silently from one end of the room. Leonardo had been going around, mostly to the girls, giving them pointers and advice about their technique. Donnie and Mikey had been sparring and Raphael had been punching the training dummy. He had been thinking about letting the girls try learning some of the more advanced routines including weapons. Well practice, non lethal weapons anyway. Maybe the turtles would learn a thing or two about their own skill set as well.

Master splinter had been watching the six teenagers before him with a lightness in his heart. He was so proud of his boys, and he couldn't have picked better friends for them himself. He tapped his cane a couple of times to get their attention, and the teenagers all fell into line before him.

"You girls have been doing very well these last couple of months, and I feel it's time that you start learning how to use your skills along with the weapons we have." The room remained silent, but there was a ripple of emotion that ran through the room. April was ecstatic, he could practically see the electricity sizzling around her. Holly was dubious, and Donatello and Raphael had matching expressions of worry written all over their faces. "I have also decided, that you boys are going to teach them how to use these weapons. After all, there is no better way to learn, than to teach."

"It would be our honor." Leo said with a little bow.

"Good, you may begin now then." Splinter walked to the sliding door that lead to the living room.

"Don't you want to stay and watch sense?" Leo asked curiously.

"I will check in on you in a while, but right now I am going to make some tea." Splinter walked out leaving the teens looking slightly lost, well all except Leonardo who was all too excited to lead the others in practice.

"Alright, well where would you like to start?" Leo asked.

April and Holly looked at each other with different expressions on their faces. April looked delighted, while Holly looked anxious.

"Well, I've always wanted to have a go with the Bo staff." April said with a glance at Donnie. His eyes widened and a small smile played around his lips.

"Ok, well what about you? What do you want to do?" Leo directed at Holly.

"I have absolutely no idea." She said looking a little lost.

"I could show you how to do this." Mikey said swinging his nun chucks around expertly. He swung one around his body doing a figure eight around his torso. It wound and unwound around his arms and body as he changed the direction of the spin. Mikey flashed her a cocky grin, until one of the handles clocked him in the side of the head. "Ouch."

"Ok, you have been practicing for years, and you still hit yourself in the head. I think I'll pass, thanks." Holly shook her head at him with a smile. Mikey looked a little down cast and she felt bad. "I promise I will try, but I don't want to start with those."

"You could always practice with us." Donnie offered.

"Oh no, I'm not getting in the middle of that." Holly pointed to her two friends, they looked at each other and immediately looked away from each other again. Donnie scratched the back of his head nervously, while April rubbed her arm. Both were blushing.

"Why don't you start with me then? I think you'd do well with a sword anyway." Leo offered.

"Umm, ok. Why not?" Holly shrugged.

"What about me?" Raph scowled at his big brother. "What are me and Mikey supposed to do?"

"You could practice with us, it might be worth us all learning some extra skills." Leo said.

"You want me to learn how to use those?" Raph pointed at the swords on his brothers back, his face was twisted as if he had just been asked to do something disgusting.

"Yeah, who knows what could happen, and maybe these could save your life." He drew his katana and swung them around in a little demonstration.

Raph rolled his eyes, "Alright, fine. I'll stay." He picked up one of the wooden practice swords muttering to himself. Holly and Leo smirked at each other, they weren't stupid. Raph was just being a drama queen since Holly hadn't jumped on him like April had with Donnie.

Mikey and Holly grabbed the other spare sticks and stood facing Leo, Raph was still muttering to himself but joined the others by his big brother. At least Donnie was having a better day for a change.

Donnie and April were in a remote corner of the room. April had a smaller, lighter version of Donnie's weapon in her hands and was starting to feel a little nervous. He was telling her a little about the history of his chosen weapon, how it had been used by common men in feudal Japan who were not allowed to carry swords of their own, and how they could be passed off as walking sticks if need be.

"Any weapon you use should become an extension of yourself, movements should be fluid and smooth." He twirled the staff from side to side showing her what he meant. "Got it so far?"

"Uh huh." She nodded at him. He beamed at her, and she couldn't help but smile back.

"Ok, we'll start with some basic motions and combine them into forms." He showed her slowly how to spin the Bo staff from side to side in front of her body. April tried to copy his motion, but kept clipping her ankles and getting her hands tangled up in themselves.

Donnie stood next to her and kept repeating the motion, hoping that following him would help. April kept doing pretty good except for when she was supposed to unwind her arms on her left side, it just didn't seem to want to click. He put his Bo staff down for a moment and walked in front of her. He was watching her again, like he had earlier when she was trying her hand at archery.

"Am I doing this right?" April asked him after a while, he hadn't said anything, he just kept watching her.

"What? Oh, yes." He snapped back to reality, "Alright, now try doing it backwards?"

April stopped what she was doing and leaned up against the staff, "What are you talking about?"

Donnie smiled at her and snatched up his own staff into his hands, "You we're spinning forwards," He showed her what he meant, "now try doing it backwards." As he changed directions, April noticed that as the end of the staff was spinning in front of the lanky turtle, it appeared to be moving from front to back, even though it was technically going in a circle.

April tried it, and found that going backwards was way easier. She only hit herself once or twice before she could keep going pretty consistently. "Hey this is awesome."

"Yeah your doing pretty good. Ok, now start going forwards, and just as your switching sides spin on your toes so your body is facing the other way, then you'll start spinning it backwards." He didn't demonstrating this time, instead he just gave her a smile.

She raised her eye brows at him, but his grin just spread wider across his face. Apparently he was not going to share what was so amusing just yet. So, instead of prying, April did what he had told her to do. She started spinning the staff forwards, and just as she was about to switch sides, she twisted her body on the balls of her feet. As she did, the staff swung up from behind her and smack her straight in the face. "Ouch," She said rubbing here forehead. Donnie just chuckled. "That's not very funny." She tried to be mad at him, but the twitch in her lips and the blush in here cheeks gave it away that she wasn't really annoyed.

"I have smashed myself in the face so many times you wouldn't believe it. Besides if I would have warned you, you would have tensed up, and you can't be smooth if your tense." He gave her a sheepish grin. "If it makes you feel better, Master Splinter never warned me either."

"Oh don't worry, I'll get you back for that later." April winked at him as she tried again. Once again as she tried to turn, the end of the staff came rushing towards her face. But this time she was ready and managed to move her head at the last second, the staff clunked against her shoulder instead. "Ok, you have to show me, I need some visual aids here."

Donnie chuckled again and demonstrated for her. "Don't worry, it takes some practice but I know you can do it."

April and Donnie kept practicing the switching motion, Donnie would do it with her and tried to explain exactly where her hands needed to be. After a few more attempts, and a few more bonks to the head, April finally managed to twist and continue spinning the staff like she was supposed to. "I did it!" she yelled, a huge grin spread across her face and she jumped up and down a couple of times before launching herself at her tall teacher. She gave him a bone crushing hug before she let him go and beamed up at him.

Donnie smiled back at her, "I knew you would."

"Well I'm glad they're having so much fun." Raph said grumpily after hearing Aprils ecstatic out burst.

"Your not even trying." Leo said, sounding fed up.

"Yeah Raph, I think this is fun." Mikey poked his tongue out at his brother, and continued to practice the little routine his biggest brother had been teaching them.

"It just feels weird." Raph looked at the fake sword in his hands, he had spent so many years learning how to use his Sais, that this just felt wrong to him. It felt so unnatural.

"Come on Raph, if you stick this out I'll make Leo join in when we work with you." Holly winked at the turtle beside her. He perk up slightly knowing that he would be able to boss Leo around later. Plus, he was having more fun than he was going to admit. He really liked learning next to Holly, she was just as bad as he was, but kept encouraging him that he was doing just fine.

Master Splinter had been watching the little group practicing. Once he had made some tea, he was glad to return to a room buzzing with activity. He was a little worried that the turtles would want to socialize more than work, but they were behaving, for the most part.

After an hour or so of them working amongst themselves, Splinter decided that it was probably time to let them go have some fun. He called over his six students, who kneeled before him once more. "You have all worked hard today, I am very proud that you were able to focus so well. But now, you are free to go have some fun."

"Alright!" Mikey hopped up and started running for the door.

"After you clean up in here." Splinter yelled at his escaping son.

The turtles and the girls cleaned up the training room quickly, they put away the equipment and cleaned the floors before heading out into the living room to relax for a moment. They all flopped down on the sofas and chairs before Mikey turned on the tv and powered up one of their many games consoles.

"How do you still have so much energy?" Holly asked Mikey who was bouncing slightly waiting for his game to load.

"Because he's a freak of nature." Raph answered before Mikey could.

"No," Mikey glared at his brother, "It's because I always have enough energy to appreciate great art."

"Its just a video game, and an old one at that." Holly replied.

"It's art to me." He turned his attention back to the screen.

"Anyway, what do you guys want to do tonight?" April asked the group.

"I'm starving, I don't know about you guys." Leo said rubbing his stomach. There was a murmur of agreement from the entire room, even Master Splinter agreed, and he was just passing through the room.

"Why don't we order some pizzas!" Mikey yelled from the floor.

"Don't you ever get tired of pizza?" April asked.

All of the turtles answered with a resounding "No."

"Why don't I go and pick up something to eat, and April you could go rent a couple of movies." Holly offered.

"Sure, what movie should I get? And do you guys have pop corn?"

"What's pop corn?" Leo asked.

"I'll take that as a "no" then." April and Holly stood up and each went to grab their wallets.

"Grab a few different movies and we can vote on it when we get back." Holly offered, "Here, take that so you can get a bunch." She handed April forty dollars, and stuffed the rest of her cash in her pocket. "While we're gone, maybe you guys could tidy up a bit." Holly directed the comment at Raph, who peered at her over the top of his comic with a look that implied that she was nuts. She waved at them over her shoulder, and she and April left the lair laughing together.

Baxter stockman was on his way home, today had been disastrous. The Shredder had threatened him countless times to find the turtles, and the Purple Dragon idiots he had been forced to work with were doing little to improve his odds of success. His only hope was the computer chip that was tucked safely in his pocket, the design was incredible, and it belonged to the tall turtle creature. He had plans for the chip, oh yes, and hopefully it would get him out of his current predicament.

Stockman entered his apartment and walked straight to his computer, an icon was blinking, indicating that his last mouser unit had transmitted some information. It was supposed to be at the warehouse waiting for him to start working, but that moron Fong had lost it. He knew the turtles had it, but he needed to know where they were. He opened the file to find one single image, it was slightly blurry but he could make out the basic shapes of two of the turtles looking fierce. Behind them was a stone room with very little distinguishable architecture to help him pin point where they may be. He leaned back I his chair and sighed, there was nothing that could help him.

There was another figure in the image, one that was not a turtle. It was a human, and a young one at that. Stockman leaned back in and examined the image carefully, there was a young girl in the turtles lair, which would mean they could use this girl to find the turtles. Stockman printed the image and would take it to the Purple bozos in the morning, they would be much more capable at finding this girl than he would alone. With so many eyes on the street, this red head would not be able to stay hidden for very long.


	19. Chapter 19

"All you got were horror movies?" Holly asked April in disbelief. When she had said "a variety" she had expected a comedy, an action movie or a chick flick, but all April had come back with we're five different horror movies.

"Yeah, who doesn't like to be scared?" April shrugged it off. She had been watching scary movies for years and loved every terrifying second of them.

"I hate horror movies, they're so stupid." Holly folded her arms across her chest. "At least I brought back six different pizzas, not just the same pizza with the toppings arranged differently."

"Oh quit whining, your starting to sound like Raph."April paused for a second and gave her friend a suspicious look. "Your not scared, are you?"

"I have never seen a horror movie that hasn't just relied on cheap thrills for entertainment." Holly tried to sound calm, but she was freaking out on the inside. She wouldn't admit it, but she was scared. She hated horror movies, she much preferred to laugh than be scared senseless.

"Don't worry, you can cuddle up to Raph, he'll protect you." April grinned at the pouting girl before her, and she received a death stare in return. April shoved Holly playfully, "I didn't know you wouldn't like these, I'm sorry." April stuck her bottom lip out and gave her friend puppy dog eyes.

"Your lucky your cute or I'd have to kill you." Holly pouted more, but April knew she was off the hook.

"Come on, before the boys eat all the pizza." April grabbed Hollys hand and dragged her back into the living room to the boys who were demolishing the food they had brought in just a few minutes ago.

"Hey you pigs, save some for us." April charged around the couch and grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza before it was all gone. Holly followed more slowly and opened up the sausage pizza box only to find it empty.

"Who ate all the sausage?" Holly asked the rowdy group in front of her.

"That would be the turtle equivalent of a garbage disposal, sitting right over there." Raph said over her shoulder pointing at Mikey. "But, I did manage to save you two slices before he could get to them." He held a plate that had two slices of pizza on it out to her.

She smiled at him and took the plate from his hands, "Thank you". Raph grabbed his own slice and the two of them took the two seats at the end of the couch.

"Alright you guys, we have a fine selection of scary movies to chose from tonight." April held out the titles for the group to see. "We have a zombie flick, a slasher flick, a mess with your head flick, another zombie movie and, my personal favorite, an alien invasion movie."

"Which slasher movie is it?" Mikey asked enthusiastically. Holly groaned slightly which earned her a curious glance from Raph. She just laughed it off like it was nothing.

"Friday the 13th, part nine or something, they've made so many I loose count." April shrugged. "It's the newest one so I would assume no one has seen it."

"Works for me." Leo said.

"Yeah, I don't care either." Raph said. "Just put that one in, it will keep Mikey happy." Everyone looked at him with a shocked look on their faces, even Holly had forgotten about being scared long enough to give him a strange look. "What? I can be nice you know." A disbelieving scoff made its was around the room, but Raph decided to let this one go.

"Alright, here you go Mikey." April threw the case at the excitable turtle who jumped up and put the movie in.

Donnie dimmed the lights and settled on the couch next to April. Holly took a deep breath trying to keep calm, the movie hadn't even started yet and she was nervous. She twisted the ends of shirt round and round her fingers.

Raph noticed her weird behavior, and placed a hand on hers, "Hey, are you alright?" He leaned in so only she would hear the concern in his voice.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'm just not a fan of scary movies." She looked a little embarrassed to be admitting this, so Raph decided to be honest with her as well.

"Don't worry, neither am I." He flashed her a grin and winked at her before settling back into his cozy corner of the couch. Holly smiled, she felt a little less foolish and tried to relax as the opening scene started on the screen.

April was settled on the couch with her legs tucked underneath her, on her left was Donatello who was leaning back with his arms behind his head. She was surprised, she hadn't pictured him being a horror fan, but he didn't seemed bothered by the movie at all.

On her other side, Leo sat not even paying attention. He had one of Raphs comics and was reading it instead. Every once in a while he would look up too see what was going on, but he seemed more interested in reading. Mikey on the other hand was engrossed in the movie. He was laying on the floor on his plastron and was wiggling his feet in the air, he was chuckling happily as the teenagers in the movie were setting up their camp by the lake. He had a slice of pizza in his hand and was waving it at the tv, telling the oblivious teens that the were in trouble.

April turned back to the movie, the serial killing swamp man had finally made his appearance and was skulking around the woods looking for his first victim. April and Holly both squealed as the poor cheer leader was cornered in the barn, they both covered their eyes with their hands although it didn't help much since Mikey was doing some commentary.

"Oh, so nasty." He laughed, "Right in the gut."

April laughed from behind her hands, she looked around at the rest of her friends to see their reactions. Leo looked unconvinced, he was probably asking himself why the stupid girl hadn't gotten back up after she had fallen over. Donnie looked a little grossed out, but not as bad as Raph did. He looked like he was about to puke. Holly had scooted all the way down in her seat and was peaking out at the tv between her fingers. Every few moments she would clamp her fingers shut with a little gasp and shake her head muttering to herself. April turned back to Donnie and put her hand on his arm. "Are you alright?" she whispered to him.

"Huh? Oh yeah." Donnie's eyes went wide as the psycho killer hacked off one of the teens arms. "This is great." He continued sarcastically.

"Your not scared are you?" She poked his shoulder and gave him a cheeky grin.

"Hardly." He looked down at her with a frown on his face. But it soon lifted when he saw that she was just making fun of him. "But I don't think he needs to keep hacking off limbs when she's already dead." He pointed at the screen as, once again, the killer was picking on the helpless screaming girl.

"Oh come on, it's all in good fun." April bumped her shoulder into his.

"I don't think she's having much fun." Again he motioned to the blond girl on the screen.

April giggled into her hand, clearly his brain was over analyzing this whole scenario. "It's supposed to be gross, it's supposed to scare the pants off of you."

"I don't wear pants." Donnie said with a smug grin.

"Shut up." She shoved him again playfully. They smiled at each other for a moment before turning back to the television. April stole another glance at the tall teen turtle by her side, he had a small smile on his face, but he was fidgeting and picking at his fingers. "Are you sure your ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine." He gave her a smile, but April felt it was forced.

This was torture, the movie had only been going for thirty minutes and she was already ready to run like hell. Holly risked another peek at the screen, but saw the helpless girl get stabbed through the torso again, and immediately closed her eyes. She heard some muttering coming from the other end of the couch, and decided to try and distract herself with some gossip. After scooting back up the couch, Holly saw that April and Donnie were flirting furiously. There was some poking and shoving involved and April was giggling.

Holly elbowed Raph in the ribs to get his attention. He gasped and jumped, since he had not been expecting to be jabbed. It took Holly a second to realize what had happened, and after he gave her a look of pure confusion and mild panic, she had to laugh at him. She help her palms up to him as a silent apology, but she still had a smile on her face. He glared at her, but when she pointed over her shoulder, he just substituted his scowl with more confusion.

Holly couldn't believe he was being so dense. She rolled her eyes at him and pointed more aggressively over her shoulder. He sat up straighter for a moment so he could see around everyone else, April and Donnie were chatting and smiling, and looking very cozy.

"So what?" He whispered, "It's not like he's going to do anything." Raph settled back in his seat and looked at her knowing that he was right.

"Why not?" She looked at him curiously. He just shrugged at her, and she frowned sadly. She turned back to the tv only to be greeted with another gruesome image of a teenage boy getting impaired with a garden hoe. Holly squealed again and buried her face in Raphs shoulder. She could feel him laughing at her by the way his shoulder was shaking under her face. However, when there was a particularly noisy and squelchy sounding killing he jumped again. Holly looked up long enough to poke her tongue out at him and receive another glare, but then she looked back at the tv long enough to see the masked killer slashing at yet another stupid teenage girl. Holly squeaked again and dove for cover again, and Raph tensed up and looked away.

"Hey, wasn't there supposed to be popped something-or-other?" Mikey said from the floor.

"You just ate." Leo said.

"So? I'm a growing boy, and I have a healthy appetite." He grinned back at Leo who was on the couch, and then turned his attention back to the screen. Leo shook his head and started to stand up, but Holly jumped up first.

"I'll get it." She practically sprinted from the room, eager to get away from the gore for just a moment.

"Oh no you don't, I'm not staying if you don't have to." Raph followed her into the kitchen. He turned back to the others just before he left the room, "Not that I don't want to watch the movie, it's awesome."

"Yeah right." Mikey said from the floor. "I saw you, you were scared."

Raph looked around for something to throw at his baby brother, but couldn't find anything that would hurt enough, he decided that he would remember to punch him later, but for now he would just go into the kitchen and try to relax for a moment. Holly already had one bag of popcorn in their home made microwave and had another ready and waiting to go.

"Is this thing safe?" She said backing away from the make-shift microwave.

"To be honest, I have no idea. Donatello made it, so I would hope so." Raph shrugged, he leaned against the counter and sighed.

"So, your just as big of a wuss as I am, huh?" Holly grinned at him.

"I am not a wuss." He folded his arms and smiled mischievously at her, "I wasn't the one who was cowering behind my hands." She pulled a sarcastic face at him since she couldn't come up with a snappy come back. "Yeah, that's what I thought." He chuckled to himself.

"Alright, yes, I get scared." The microwave dinged and she took the first bag out and dumped the contents into a couple of bowls. She started the second bag cooking and turned back to Raphael, who was still grinning to himself. She bit her lip. "Do you get scared?"

He didn't answer, he had never admitted to anyone that he got scared. He had only ever shared his fears with Master Splinter, but he never actually used the word "scared".

"It's ok, you don't have to tell me. I didn't mean to bring up a sensitive issue." She turned around to grab the rest of the popcorn and handed him two of the bowels. "Here, you can carry these." She gave him a little smile before they walked back into the darkened living room.

Holly held one bowl out to Donnie, she leaned over him on the opposite side of April, "Put your arm around her." she whispered in his ear. As she pulled back he had a confused look on his face, she didn't say anything else, instead she just winked at him.

She walked over to Mikey and put the second bowl down next to him. "Hope you like it."

He picked up a single piece of popcorn, sniffed it, and popped it into his mouth. A glazed look clouded his face for a moment, and then he started shoveling the popcorn into his mouth as fast as he could.

"Slow down or you'll choke." Holly snatched the bowl away from him.

"But it's so good." He was drooling slightly as he reached for the bowl in her hands.

"Would you sit down? He'll be fine." April hissed at her. Holly rolled her eyes but sat back down next to Raph, who was already stuffing his face. She kicked up one leg and reached over to get a hand full of popcorn. Raph pulled the bowl away from her, and when she leaned over to try again, he held the bowl further away. Holly raised an eyebrow at him, and he brought the bowl back so she could reach it. She poked him hard in the arm and threw a piece of popcorn at him, just so he knew she would fight back.

Donatello had the bowl Holly had given him resting on his leg. He also had the idea she had given him rolling through his head, he had been wrestling with it for almost a half an hour now. If he didn't make a decision soon, the movie would be over. If he did put his arm around her, it could be a step forwards to something more, but it could also ruin their friendship. However if he did nothing, she may think that he wasn't interested. He was going over and over the pros and cons, when something small hit him in the side of the head. He looked down to see what it was, and found a piece of popcorn in the crook of his arm.

He looked to his right, to see that Holly was waving at him silently. She and Raph had apparently given up on watching the movie and were now egging him on to make his move on April. They were silently mouthing at him to put his arm around her, and when he shook his head in defiance, they threw more popcorn at him.

April felt a couple of pieces of popcorn hit her, she looked over to see where it had come from, and saw Holly and Raph doing their best to look innocent. She turned to Donnie who was frowning at the other two teens on the other end of the couch.

"What is going on?" She whispered, sounding mildly irritated.

"It's nothing, they're just being stupid." He shook his head again, looking over the top of Aprils head. She turned to see what was going on, and Holly was scratching the back of her neck and Raph was tapping his finger on his knees. April narrowed her eyes at her friends, curious as to what they were up to. But for right now, she didn't care. She was watching an awesome movie with her five favorite people. She sighed happily to herself and rested her head against Donatello's shoulder.

Donnie was stunned, he had been dreaming of a moment like this for so long. This had to be another dream. He looked down at the top of Aprils head, her bright hair shone in the dull light, and he could smell her shampoo. He looked over April at Holly, who had a smile on her face. Behind her Raph wore a similar expression, but his had a hint of smugness gleaming through his red bandanna. Donnie turned his attention back to April, she had wound here arm around his and had her hand resting on top of his. He smiled to himself and rested his cheek against the top of her head and just enjoyed the sensation of being so close to the girl he dreamt of.


	20. Chapter 20

The turtle boys had gone to bed hours ago, and April was breathing deeply at the other end of the sofa, but Holly just couldn't sleep. She had been having troubling dreams since April and Mikey had forced her through a second horror movie earlier that night. Leonardo had at least enjoyed the second one they had watched as it was supposedly more believable, but she had spent those two hours trying not to run away. Every time she had closed her eyes, she had seen herself and the others trying to fight off hoards of machete wielding zombies. It wasn't the zombies themselves that scared her, it was seeing the fear in her friends eyes and knowing that she couldn't do anything to help them.

April mumbled in her sleep, something about Donatello. At least someone was having pleasant dreams. Holly stood up and wrapped herself in her blanket, she walked over to her bag of clothes and books and pulled out her tablet. If she couldn't sleep she may as well be entertained at the same time. She walked out of the living room and into the little kitchen, there was no need to wake up April just because she couldn't sleep. After finding something to drink, Holly sat on one of the chairs and loaded one of her favorite movies from her library and settled in for a long night.

Splinter woke up later than he usually would. His boys and the girls had been up making quite a racket the previous night, but he didn't really mind. He was just happy that his sons got the opportunity to feel like normal teenagers for a while. He left his room and made his way silently through the living area, a quick glance at the sofa revealed that there was only one sleeping form laying there. As he rounded the pillar to the kitchen, he saw Holly hunched over the table. She was breathing softly resting her head on her arms, beside her a black tablet was propped up on its stand.

Splinter carefully moved around the sleeping girl and started his usual morning routine. After setting his kettle on the stove top, he fished out the coffee grounds and filters from a cabinet. He poured himself some tea and made himself some breakfast and sat in one of the empty chairs on the opposite sided of the table from Holly. She twitched and groaned as she started to wake up.

"Good morning, I didn't think our kitchen table was that comfortable." Splinter said, he took a sip of tea and waited for the girl to fully awaken.

"Oh god, is it really morning?" Holly peeked out over her arm with just one eye. She slowly raised her head off of the table and sat up straight, her neck and back were stiff from being hunched over for the last four hours. Her cheek had an imprint of the grain of the wooden table and her hair was sticking out at some wired angles.

Splinter chuckled as she stretched again and wrapped herself back in the blanket. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat back in the chair she had slept in, and after she had taken her first sip she let a smile creep across her face.

"I take it you didn't sleep well last night?" Splinter asked the girl.

"No, not really. I kept, uh, waking up." She finished lamely.

Splinter just nodded, he didn't want to force an explanation out of Holly. If she wanted to talk, she would talk.

"Oh, I hope we weren't too loud last night?" Holly took another sip of coffee.

"It's perfectly fine, it's nice to see them acting like normal teens for a change." Splinter smiled at her.

"They are normal." Holly said innocently, Splinter raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, as normal as mutated turtles can be." Splinter laughed heartily, it was weird to hear since he didn't laugh much, but the sound made Holly laughed with him.

"What's so funny?" Leonardo walked into the kitchen looking a little groggy himself.

"Wow, you look almost as bad as I do." Holly said.

"I dunno, you look pretty rough." Leo said as he poured himself some coffee.

"Oh, your such a charmer." She replied, voice dripping in sarcasm.

"So? Why do you look like you got dragged through a bush backwards?" He asked.

"I didn't sleep much." Holly tugged the blankets closer around her shoulders. At least she didn't have to worry about going to school on so little sleep. "Oh, and I don't recommend using the table as a pillow." She motioned to her face, which was still a little pink on one side.

"I was wondering what had happened to your face. Luckily for me, I have a nice soft bed to sleep in." Leo said smugly.

"I do have a nice soft bed, unfortunately it's half way across town." She blinked at him over her mug. He chuckled at her and settled himself in an empty chair. "Alright, we've laughed at me, now it's your turn. Why didn't you sleep?"

"I was just reading, I lost track of time." He shrugged and sat beside her. "Why couldn't you sleep?"

Holly smiled at the oldest of the turtle boys, he stared her down waiting for a answer. She sighed to herself and decided to just give in, she was too tired to argue. "Fine, I couldn't sleep because I kept having pretty bad dreams." She looked embarrassed and her cheeks flushed slightly.

"What about?" Leo asked, apparently unfazed by this revelation.

"Us, all of us. Everyone was dying and I couldn't do anything to stop it." Holly took another deep breath, she was still a little disturbed by her own imagination.

"That is nothing you should be ashamed of, it simply means you care about your friends." Splinter said calmly.

"Maybe so, but It doesn't help me sleep any better." Holly stated simply.

"I suppose that is true." Splinter said after a moments pause.

Holly smiled into her coffee, it was nice to have people around to talk to about random things. The little group talked for a while about whatever popped into their heads, mostly Splinter and Leo talked while Holly tried to keep her head off the table. After a little while, April stumbled into the kitchen rubbing her eyes and yawning widely.

"Did none of you sleep last night?" Splinter asked as April sat at the table heavily.

"I slept fine, I just wasn't quite ready to wake up." April said through another enormous yawn.

"I'll say. Just so you know, you talk in your sleep." Holly said with a malicious grin.

April stopped rubbing her face and let her hands fall to the table top. "What was I saying?"

"I didn't catch all of it, but it was defiantly something to do with Donatello." Holly waggled her eyebrows at her friend. April blushed slightly and just smiled. Holly couldn't help but laugh.

Pretty soon, everyone had stumbled into the little kitchen, and after a couple rounds of coffee and two boxes of cereal, the room was full of vibrant chatter and laughing. Mikey was arguing with Leo about which of the two movies they had watched last night was the best. While April, Raph and Donnie were discussing their plans for the rest of the day.

"I hope your plans include training today?" Master Splinter said when there was a lull in their conversation.

"Well of course." April said to splinter, she cringed slightly as she turned back to the two turtle boys, she hadn't even thought about training. Donnie and Raph sniggered behind their hands.

The group of teenagers made their way back into the living room, April cleaned up the blanket and pillows she had used the night before and grabbed some clean clothes out of her back pack. As she went to find a quite place to change, Holly fell back onto the couch, still clutching her blanket tightly. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes.

"If you wanted to sleep, you should have done it last night." Raph said from above her with his arms crossed.

Holly didn't even open her eyes, "If I wanted to sleep, I never would have agreed to watch those stupid movies."

"Did you have some bad dreams?" Raph was mocking her.

"Don't start with me tough guy, you might just get more than you can handle." She peeked up at him through one eye and waggled a finger at him from between the folds of her blanket. He shook his head at her, then he gestured that she should sit up with a nod of his head. She groaned, but complied. He took his usual seat at the end of the couch and settled back to watch tv. Holly leaned against him and closed her eyes again, she didn't have the energy to feel embarrassed that she was being so forward.

Splinter walked through the living room on the way to his own room and saw that the teenagers were all slouching on the couch watching television. "Leonardo." He said to his oldest son, "Why don't you lead training today? You are going to have to learn to motivate and exhausted team at some point."

"Hai sense." Leo replied to his master. "When do you guys want to start?" He asked the room rubbing his hands together.

"You heard him, motivate me." Holly said from Raphs shoulder, she had a grin on her face but kept her eyes closed. Raphael chuckled, he loved that she liked being just as difficult as he did every once in a while.

"Think of it this way; the sooner we start, the sooner we'll be done." Leo tried to convince her.

"Or, the later we start, the longer I get to try sleeping again." Again, Holly didn't open her eyes, and Raph laughed. It wasn't very often he got to watch his brother get annoyed with someone, usually it was him driving up Leo's blood pressure. She cracked one eye open to see Leo giving her a very disapproving look. "Alright, alright, Keep your bandana on, I'll go change." Holly stood and wrapped the blankets even tighter around herself, she yawned as she picked up her belongings.

Training was brutal, Holly was barely able to stay upright, let alone try to block the wooden sword Leo had been swinging at her. April faired better against Donnie, and even managed to crack him on the knuckles a couple of times. Leo decided after a couple of hours that, given everyone's mood, they should call it quits for today.

Holly fell face first into the couch and just lay there perfectly still for a while. April on the other hand was busying herself gathering up her belongings and making sure all the DVDs were in their correct cases.

"What are you doing?" Holly asked, voice muffled by the cushions.

"I have to head home today, and I don't want to have to pay for these again so I'm going to bring them back to the store." She grabbed the cases and stuffed them into her bag.

"I suppose I should at least go get some clean clothes." Holly propped herself up on her elbows. "I am wearing the last clean set I had."

"You guys are leaving us?" Mikey said from the floor

"I have to go home and spend some time with my aunt." April replied.

"I'll come back later, once I shower and take a nap." Holly pushed herself into a seated position, it took more effort that it should have. "It's not like there's anyone for me there, and I'd rather have your company even if there was."

"Really, even after Leo just got done trying to kill you?" Raph said with a smirk.

"Meh, it's ok. No one ever said it would be easy." Holly shrugged. "Besides, if I leave with April, there will be someone to drag me home should my legs give out."

"Yeah right, if you go down your on your own." April scoffed.

The girls made slow progress getting home, their legs dragged and their backpacks were heavier than they remembered them being. As they walked, they had some good old fashioned girl talk. They gossiped about the turtles and training, and they laughed at all the strangely dressed people who were out that day. They rounded one corner, about three blocks from Aprils apartment, and stopped in their tracks. There was two Purple Dragon members leaning against the wall of the convenience store.

The girls looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. "They can't be up to anything good." April said it aloud.

"They can't be planning on robbing that place right now, can they? It's the middle of the day." Holly said with disbelief. She new that this particular gang was stupid, but they couldn't be that dumb, could they?

"It's not like they're doing anything wrong right now, lets go. You should let the boys know when you see them later though." April and Holly continued on their way, and they kept an eye on the men as they walked by on the opposite side of the road. One of the men pulled out a cell phone and placed a call, and just as the girls rounded the corner to Aprils street, the men pushed off the wall and crossed the street.

Holly waved to her friend as she continued on to her own apartment, but before April actually went inside, she checked up and down the street. Something was off, and she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Yeah, she saw the occasional Purple Dragon member out during the day, but the two she had just seen were up to no good, she just knew it.

The two Gang members stood at the end of April road, they had been instructed earlier to keep an eye out for the red headed girl and find out where she lived, where she went to school and places she liked going. Stockman had handed out copies of a picture that proved she was in cahoots with the turtles, and had told all the lower ranking members to spread out around the area and find her. They had called Fong to let him know that had found her already, but that she was with a friend, and he told them to wait until she was alone. If they were lucky, they'd get a promotion for finding her so quickly.


	21. Chapter 21

April woke up pretty early the following morning, she had been hanging out with here Aunt most of the evening and had enjoyed one of her favorite home cooked meals with as many vegetables as she could get her hands on. The following morning however, the leftovers that we're in the garbage, didn't smell too great. So, April grabbed the bag, put on some shoes, grabbed her keys and took the smelly bag out to the dumpster.

She bounced down the stairs and out the front door. It was a beautiful day already, the sun was out and the temperature was just perfect. She took a moment to enjoy the weather before hurrying around the corner to throw out the trash. Oh her way back in however, she spotted a suspicious man hanging around at the end of her street. He was just standing there staring down the street in her direction. April frowned and squinted trying to see him more clearly.

Once back inside, April raced back upstairs. She hurried back into her room and grabbed her phone off of its charger and typed a quick message to Holly. She received a reply almost immediately, apparently Holly had slept better last night and was up just as early. It said that Holly would wake up the boys and see what they thought was the best plan of action. April took her phone with her into the kitchen, if she was going to have to wait for an answer, she would at least have some coffee and breakfast to pass the time.

Holly had woken up when April texted her. She had filled the guys and Splinter in on what they had seen, and while they agreed that the gang members behavior was strange, they didn't feel it warranted investigation. Not unless there was more to go on than just them standing around not doing anything. Holly rolled off the couch and grabbed her glasses out of their case, she quickly walked over to the kitchen to see if anyone was already there, and luckily for her, Leo and Donnie were.

"Hey guys, Did April text you?" Holly didn't even sit, she walked straight for the coffee to help un-fog her brain.

"What? No, why would she?" Donnie frowned slightly, judging from Hollys body language something was going on.

"She saw another creep hanging around her street." Holly said. "Don't worry, she's fine, she's in her apartment with her Aunt." She reassured Donnie when she saw the look of worry on his face.

"What dose she want us to do about it?." Leo said. "It's not like we can go out and take care of him."

"No, but she wants to know what you think she should do." Holly put her hands on her hips and frowned.

"Well, ideally she should just stay put and stay safe until we can get there later. But I have a feeling that she won't want to do that." Donnie said with mild amusement. April was not the kind of girl to sit back and let everyone else have all the fun.

"Exactly my point. When are the others going to wake up?" She spun around looking impatient.

"You don't need to wake them up for this. Raph will just be crabby and Mikey will fall asleep standing up if he has to." Leo said.

Holly turned back to Leo, she knew he was right. She sighed and nodded at him and sat in one of the empty chairs. She pulled out her phone and sent April a message saying that Donnie wanted her to stay put and Leo said to be careful, even if he hadn't actually used those exact words.

April was sat watching cartoons while she ate her breakfast, no matter how old she got, she still loved early morning cartoons. Her phone beeped at her and she snatched it up to read what the verdict was. It was pretty much what she had been expecting, no one wanted her to do anything until they could get to her. But that would take all day, and she was not going to miss out on the fun just because she was a little paranoid. She stood up, put her bowel in the sink, and decided to take a shower before she headed out for the day.

Holly was frustrated, she was pacing back and forth behind the couches trying to make up her mind about what to do. On the one hand, it was unlikely that she and April would be able to fend off a group of Purple Dragon members, if they were indeed up to no good. However, two people would fare much better than just one, and that was even if there was anything to worry about. There was a good chance that the gang members they had seen last night were just bored, and that the one by Aprils place was just a coincidence.

Holly couldn't take it anymore. She stuffed her phone in her pocket and started running for the exit. "I'm going to Aprils. Hopefully we'll be back soon."

"Whoa, whoa. What are you doing?" Donnie yelled at her from the couch. He stood up, just incase he needed to stop her from doing anything rash.

"I'm going to Aprils." She repeated.

"Why? It's much safer, and cooler, down here." He started walking towards her, the rest of the turtle boys were interested in this conversation now, and had dropped what they were doing to listen.

"Because, there may not be anything going on, but just incase, I don't want to leave her alone." Holly said hurriedly.

"But if there is something going on, wouldn't it be smarter to wait for all of us to be able to go?" Leo asked from the couch.

"You and I both know she's not going to sit tight, so why should I? The two of us would fare much better than just her by herself." She

The turtle boys all looked at each other, apparently they were having a silent discussion that she wasn't a part of. She knew she couldn't fight off thugs like they could, but she couldn't sit back and do nothing.

"Let her go." Raph said suddenly. Hollys eyes widened in shock, of all the turtle boys, she had not expected him to be the one to agree with her. "We can't stop her, and she's the only one who can go out right now anyway."

"Alright, but call us if you need us." Leo said.

"Let us know when you get to Aprils." Donnie added.

"Don't worry so much guys, she can handle it." Mikey chimed in.

"Thanks Mikey." Holly said quietly.

"Just, you know." Raph coughed trying to cover up his uncomfortableness, "Be careful."

Holly just nodded, she felt touched that they trusted her to do what she felt was right. She turned on her toes and rushed out of the lair. On her way back up to the surface, she called April to make sure she was doing alright. April was still at home, so that was good. But she had been keeping an eye on the street through the window, and there was still the same guy hanging around. Holly made sure no one was around before she stepped out onto the street, she couldn't be too careful right now.

As she walked the city streets, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The people walking around didn't seem like they were up to anything and no one seemed to be following her. Holly relaxed a little, but not completely, as she drew closer and closer to April's apartment she kept her eyes peeled for anything unusual. She walked on the other side of the road than they had the previous night, and passed right by the convenience store where the men had been loitering. No one was there now, just the occasional customer going in to buy milk or coming out with a pack of cigarettes.

The next road she walked down would be the one where the guy had been spotted earlier. Again, she stayed on the wrong side of the road so she could pass buy the guy without being spotted herself. As she walked she slowed down slightly to get a better look at the guy. He didn't look like anything special, but he was wearing the trademark black and purple of his gang. He was just leaning against the wall at the end of the street, he had his phone out and was focused pretty intently on it. He would look up every once in a while, but he mostly stayed glued to his phone. Holly crossed the street right in front of Aprils apartment, and walked straight up to the door. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the man straighten up and watch her. She stepped through the main entrance and bolted up the stairs to Aprils apartment.

"Hey." Holly said cheerfully, happy that her friend hadn't done anything reckless.

"What's up? Come on in." April stepped aside, and Holly stepped inside.

The girls sat around giggling and acting like regular teens while Aprils aunt was still around, but when ever she left the room, they would switch conversation to the man outside.

"How long has he been there?" Holly asked.

"He was there when I took out the at about seven-thirty. So I would assume he's been there a while." April said.

"What do you think they're planning?" Holly asked

"I don't know, but I'm not letting one guy ruin my day." April hopped up and headed for the door. "We're going out, I'll see you later!" She shouted into the apartment.

"Ok girls, have a nice day and be careful." Aprils aunt yelled back.

"Bye Ms. O'Neil." Holly yelled.

The girls walked down the stairs, and out onto the street. Holly looked down the road, the creepy guy was still there, but now he was standing up straight and was clearly watching them.

"Let's go the other way, just incase." Holly said with a frown

"Yeah, alright." April followed Hollys gaze and a wrinkle of concern crossed her brow.

The girls turned their backs to the guy at the end of the street and walked away. They kept their conversation light to make themselves seem like they were just normal kids, all the while they kept their eyes and ears open to their surroundings. They rounded the corner at the end of the road and chanced a glance behind them, and just as they suspected he would, the guy at the end of the road was now following them.

"Ok, something is definitely going on here. He's following us." April said quietly.

"No, he's following you." Holly corrected her. "They didn't follow me home last night."

"Me, what did I do?" April sounded more annoyed than anything.

Holly just shrugged, she was smart, not psychic. "What ever it is, we can't lead him back to the turtles."

"We'll have to ditch him somewhere away from the lair and double back." April said excitedly.

The girls continued to walk in the wrong direction trying to think of the best place to loose their unwanted company. They wandered aimlessly for almost a hour, watching the reflection in the shop windows to see if they were still being followed. It seemed that the guy who had been hanging around all morning was getting worn out, he was still behind them but his pace was slowing and he seemed distracted.

"I know the perfect place to loose this guy." April said suddenly, a grin spread slowly across her face. She took off walking without another word, Holly had to jog to catch up to her.

"Where are we going?" Holly whispered.

"It's perfect, it's on the way back to the lair, but it's out of the way too, and if we do loose this guy we won't have to pass back my apartment to get to the turtles." April giggled, she had some awesome ideas.

"Ok, but you still didn't tell me where we're going." Holly said irritably.

"You know, you really sound like Raph sometimes." April said, Holly scowled at her and April laughed. "See, right there, that is exactly the same look he gives Leo all the time."

After another twenty minutes, April and Holly had arrived at their destination. April looked smug as Holly let an amazed look cross her face. The girls walked as calmly as they could towards one of New York's fish market, it was always filled with hundreds of vendors and customers yelling at each other and throwing fish around.

"This is amazing, how do you know about this place?" Holly grabbed Aprils arm.

"Me and dad used to come here all the time, it's always busy so we should be able to sneak out the back without being seen." April smiled sadly as she thought about her father.

Holly gave her friend a quick squeeze, then took Aprils hand and pulled her into the hustle and bustle of people in the covered market. They ducked around the people and wound between the stalls. They turned and ran down another aisle, and then another, and dove for cover behind crates full of fresh caught fish. They crouched down to wait and make sure they were no longer being followed. Not a moment later, a panting Purple Dragon member pushed his way out of the mass of people. He frantically looked around for the girls he had been following.

He pulled out his cell phone and ran his hands nervously through his hair as he waited for the other person to answer. "Boss. I lost them." He winced as who ever was on the other end of the line yelled at him. "Yes boss, I'll double back just incase." The man stuffed his phone back in his pocket, and kicked out at a can in frustration. It bounced off the other side of the crates that April and Holly were crouched behind, they looked at each other with wide eyes. If he followed the can they would be caught. Luckily, however, he turned and stomped back into the market cursing under his breath.

April let out a sigh, as Holly poked her head out from their hiding place, "I think we're good." Holly and April wasted no time running as fast as their legs would carry them to the turtles lair. They stopped a couple of times to make sure none of the Purple Dragons had picked up their trail again, but it seemed like they were in the clear.

The turtle boys had been waiting patiently for April and Holly to return, but they had been waiting for a few hours now and were starting to get worried. They had started their day either reading, working or playing games, but one by one they had abandoned their hobbies in favor of watching the clock, pacing or staring at their T-phones. Even Mikey had put down his controller and was staring absently off into the distance.

"This is stupid, we have to do something." Raph yelled after a half an hour of silence. He was frustrated and worried and hated no knowing what was going on.

"We have to trust that the girls are capable of looking after themselves." Leo said.

"They could be in trouble." Raph yelled even louder.

"Or they could be perfectly fine and your getting worked up for nothing." Leo yelled back.

"You know what they say, 'No news is good news'" Donnie said, trying to defuse the situation. He wouldn't deny that he was worried too, but he wasn't about to go running around in board daylight just because they hadn't herd anything yet.

"Donnie's right, so just sit down and chill out." Leo said, he took a deep breath trying to calm himself down. No body could get under his skin like Raph could.

Donnie sighed as his hot head brother started pacing. He pulled out his cell phone and checked the screen for the hundredth time. He was debating sending one of the girls a message since Holly had said they would come back.

All the turtles looked up when there was suddenly noise coming from the entrance of their home. It started as a quiet shuffling noise and grew into booming footsteps that reverberated off all the walls. April stumbled into view panting and clutching her side, she dropped here bag on the floor and bent over trying to catch her breath.

"April?" Donnie said, he stood up and went to her side. "Are you alright?"

She nodded and held up a finger, asking for a moment. "We ran all the way from the docks."

"What were you doing there?" Leo asked.

"Getting rid of the Purple Dragon guy who was following us." April stood up straight and retrieved her belongings.

"Speaking of 'us', where's Holly?" Mikey pointed out.

"She was right behind me." April said looking around for her friend.

Raph took off running before anyone could stop him. He knew something would happen, and he wasn't about to sit back and do nothing anymore. He rushed through the twisting tunnels, thinking of all the most likely places Holly could be. His pessimistic mind was also flashing the worst case scenarios at him, he kept seeing images of the brunette being dragged back to Dog Pound for questioning. He picked up his pace as he drew closer and closer to the surface.

As he rounded another corner, he ran straight into Holly who was turning the same corner from the other direction. The collided with a thud, but since Raph had substantially more mass behind him than Holly did, he remained upright while she bounced off and landed sprawled on her back. Her glasses flew off her face and landed a few feet away.

"Holy crap, are you alright?"

"Oh my god,I think I was safer running from the Purple Dragon." Holly said from the floor.

Raph let out a bark of laughter, partly because he was so relieved to see Holly safe. "What are you doing here?" He pulled Holly back to her feet after he retrieved her glasses for her.

"April dipped through the access and took off running, leaving me to put the cover back in place by myself." Holly sounded irritated, but she had a smile on her face.

"Why didn't you run and catch up?" Raph handed the girl her glasses once she had dusted herself off.

"Are you kidding me? We just ran about four miles to get here, I'm not running the half-mile through the sewers too." She said.

Raph chuckled lightly, Holly filled him in on what had happened to the girls in the last couple of hours while they made their way back to the rest of the group. By the time she had finished telling him her story, his smile had turned to a frown.

"So the Purple Dragons are trying to follow you guys." Raph summed up her story, he felt anger bubble up inside him towards the gang members.

"Well, they're trying to follow April." Holly said, and she had to admit that she was scared for her friend. These men were criminals and were definitely not above kidnapping.

"At least you guys are safe now, we were starting to worry." Raph said.

Holly smiled slightly, "Were you worried about me? Is that why you nearly knocked me out back there?" Raph went very quiet for a moment, he looked a little uncomfortable so Holly decided to go easy on him for once. "Oh relax, I'm just messing with you." She shoved him playfully, but he didn't respond like he usually would. She stopped and looked at him as he continued to walk past her. "Raph?"

He slowed down slightly and glance over his shoulder. "Come on, the others will be waiting for us." He stated to walks away from her again, but she stood her ground.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, "What's going on Raph?"

He stopped again and turned around, he eyed her for a moment, trying to figure out if she was serious or not. She raised her eyebrows at him waiting for a response. "I'll stay here all day if I have to." She said firmly.

"Do you remember the question you asked me the other day?" He asked her with a straight face. For once there was no hint of sarcasm in his tone.

She wrinkled her brow trying to figure out exactly which question he was talking about. It dawned on her suddenly and her eyes widened slightly, "Oh. I asked if you ever got scared."

"Yeah." He shifted uncomfortably again, "For about five minutes there, I was."

Holly just stood there, she let her arms fall to her sides and remained silent.

Raph cleared his throat and turned to walk away, "We should get back, I'm sure Leo wants to talk to you."

Holly watched him start to walk away, and hurried to catch up. She grabbed his hand as she caught up and pulled on it gently to get him to turn back towards her. "Wait. Just clarify something for me, were you scared that we were gone for so long? Or that April came back without me?"

Raph looked into her grey eyes, she was silently urging him to be honest with her, she wanted to know. But he still was unsure of himself and of what could possibly be. He took a breath to answer.

"See, I told you she was right behind me." April said from behind Raph.

"April! Thanks for ditching me by the way." Holly let go of Raphael's hand and walked around him. On her way past though, she glanced at him for the briefest moment.

"I didn't ditch you, your just slow." April laughed.

"Where we're you anyway?" Mikey asked suspiciously.

"I didn't feel like doing anymore running so I walked, and before I knew it I got knocked off my feet." Holly smiled widely at her friends, she started walking back towards the lair and the rest of the group followed. She glanced back at Raph as they all walked away, he was staring at her with a disappointed look on his face. He followed the group, but hung back slightly to collect his thoughts.

The teenagers all sat around in the living area having a serious conversation about what had happened earlier that day. April had filled in the rest of the group while Holly and Raph had been in the tunnels, and they all agreed that April was the focus of the Purple Dragons efforts. They also agreed that until they could figure out why they wanted her, it was not safe for her to be alone.

"You know your always welcome to stay with us, and to be honest I don't think there's anywhere safer you could stay." Leo said.

"I can stay for now, but what about when we have to go back to school? My aunt won't let me out every night while classes are in session." April said.

"I can walk with you to school and back, but hopefully they get bored of following you before then." Holly said unconvincingly.

"What do they want with me anyway?" April asked, she was concerned that the Purple Dragons had taken to following her.

"I have a theory." Donnie said, he was frowning slightly. "I wouldn't be surprised if they figured out that you know us. They're going to either use you as bate, or they're going to get you to lead them to us."

"But the Purple Dragons are push overs, why would they want to find us when they'll just get creamed?" Mikey asked.

"True, but we already know they're being manipulated by Dog Pound and Stockman. So I'd bet it's them who want to find us." Donnie said.

April sighed and rested her head on her hands, it seemed that she was in trouble no matter what they did. The turtles couldn't help her much during the day, and if the Purple Dragons decided they were going to try something, two teenage girls weren't going to be much of a problem.

While the rest of the group talked strategy, April stood and walked into the little kitchen. She grabbed a cup out of one of the rickety cupboard and ran the water in the sink until it was cold. She leaned against the counter and watched the water swirl down the drain letting her mind go blank for a few blissful moments.

"April? Are you ok?" Donatello had followed her from the other room.

April span around, startled by the sound of his voice. "Yes, I'm fine." She smiled at him, "I just needed a moment alone."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll go." He took a step backwards.

"No don't." She stepped towards the lanky turtle with her arms outstretched, she lowered them to her sides again blushing when she realized how crazy she sounded. "I mean, I don't mind if you want to stay." He gave her a confused look, but remained where he was. April sighed again, "I'm just a little overwhelmed right now."

"Can I help at all?" Donnie asked.

"Not really. I just don't want anyone to get hurt because of me." April looked at her feet, feeling foolish.

"No one's going to get hurt, you don't need to worry so much." Donnie moved around the table and put his massive hands on her arms, she looked so vulnerable and small, which was not normal for the usually bubbly red head he knew.

"But you guys are always fighting, and Holly has to practically shadow me from now on, and what if the Purple Dragons get tired of waiting for me and go after her, or my Aunt? She's the only family I have left." April felt tears well up in her eyes, it felt good to get all that off her chest.

Donnie looked into her sad eyes and his heart melted, he pulled her into a tight hug and gently stroked her silky hair. "Everything is going to be just fine. Holly is worried about you too, which is why she is willing to put herself in this situation, she doesn't want to see you get hurt either. And if stockman is as smart as he thinks he is, he'll know you wouldn't have told your aunt about us since she wouldn't believe you anyway."

He let her sob quietly into his plastron for a few minutes, just letting all the stress go that she had been holding onto for so long. She took a few deep, shaky breaths and pulled away just far enough to look at him again. He smiled his gap-tooth smile at her, and she let out a giggle.

"Feel better?" He said, whipping away the last of her tears with his thumb. She nodded and smiled at him again.

"Thanks, for everything Donnie." She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. Her feet barely touched the ground, but they stayed there for a moment. She lifted her head to give him a peck on the cheek, but just as she leaned in he turned his head unexpectedly and she caught him on the corner of the mouth instead.

Donnies eyes went wide in shock and he almost dropped April. He blushed furious and tried to apologize but all that came out was incoherent babbling. April too looked a little stunned, but she wasn't sorry. Not even close. Before she could change her mind, she wrapped her arms tighter around him and kissed him properly this time.

Donnie couldn't believe it, he had just accidentally been kissed by April and instead of pulling away from him she had kissed him again. He let his eyes slip closed and wrapped his arms around her waist, he pulled her as close to him as she could possibly be and held on like she might slip through his fingers at any moment.

They broke apart and just looked at each other for a few seconds. A slight blush crept up Aprils cheeks and a smile broke across her face.

"Ok, so am I in a coma and this is just an extended dream sequence?" He had to say something and it seemed like it could be a possibility a dream. April laughed at him and pinched him on the arm.

"Did that hurt?" She asked.

"A little." He admitted.

"Then I guess it's real." April said.

The two teens smiled, while neither really wanted their moment to end, they knew it had to. April took the lanky turtle by the hand and pulled him gently back out to the others. She let go of his hand just outside of the group and took her seat beside Holly. Donnie took up his seat on the other side of the circle, and although he was supposed to be paying attention to the conversation, he couldn't keep his mind on topic. April kept looking up at him and smiling, apparently she was having the same problem.


	22. Chapter 22

April couldn't believe what she had done. She kept playing that moment over and over in her head all morning, and she was desperate to tell Holly. She kept finding herself smiling at nothing, and whenever someone asked her a question, she realized she hadn't been listening at all. She couldn't seem to get a moment alone with her only female friend, and it seemed even more hopeless once Master Splinter decided he wanted to give them one super intense training session. He and Leonardo had gone into overprotective mode once everyone was fully caught up on the days events, and thought it best to really put the girls to the test.

April and Holly were told to practice blocking and evading, since it was unlikely they would have access to a weapon if they came up against the Purple Dragons in the street. They were each told to stand in the middle of the room and had to defend themselves from attacks that could come from anywhere. April stood next to Holly, and they were surrounded by the four turtle boys.

"Alright, imagine were a typical group of Purple Dragon members." Leo said from behind April. It was a little intimidating being surrounded by the turtles, April was just glad that they were just training, and wasn't sure how she would feel if she and Holly were actually in this situation. "We're going to pretend to attack you, all you have to do is fend us off and get away." He made it sound so simple.

"Just like that, huh?" Holly said sarcastically. She turned so the two of them were back to back.

"You'll be fine, it's not like we're actually going to hurt you. Just remember your training, and we'll even start off slow so you get the feel for it." Leo looked at his brothers. "Ready?" They all responded with nods. Mikey had the biggest grin on his face, he was apparently enjoying this more than anyone else. Leo then turned to the girls. "Are you ready?" Neither or them really responded, April took a deep breath and kept shifting her gaze from one turtle to the next. Holly had a grim look on her face, but her eyes were determined. She understood why this exercise was so important. In the event of an actual confrontation, Holly would have to do whatever she could to get April away from the group. After all, as of right now April was the target, and if Holly were caught, she would be able to play dumb long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

Splinter sat watching the group from the corner of the room. He was anxious to see that the girls would be capeable of at least defending themselves against the boys, if they weren't, then April would be in trouble on the surface if they ran into trouble. He believed that they could take care of themselves under normal surcumstances, but he was worried that they might have trouble against someone who actually wanted to hurt them. Still, he had faith in them. They always worked hard during their training sessions and they were advancing faster than he would have anticipated.

Leonardo nodded at his brothers, and instantly Mikey moved to grab onto Aprils arm. It is what the gang members would try first after all. He lunged out and gripped Aprils wrist, but she managed to twist herself free and pushed his arm away without too much issue. Behind her, Leo and Raph both took a step towards Holly.

Holly flicked her eyes back and forth between the two of them so she could see when one of them lunged. It was Leo who moved first. He swung clumsily at her, just like one of the Purple Dragons would, but she was prepaired for it. She side blocked the punch, pushing his arm across his body screwing up his center of balance. He "stumbled" sideways, so she gave him a shove towards his brother.

Donatello was about to follow Mikeys lead and act like he was going to try and subdue April. Unfortunatly, he wasn't paying much attention to what was happening next to him, Holly had just given Leo a good hard shove in his direction, and the next thing he knew, his big brother was barreling into him. They both stayed on their feet, since they had years of training behind them, but they knew if they really were as uncoordinated as the real gang members, they would have been on the floor.

April saw Leo come flying by in her peripheral vision, but she had Raph on her other side and he was a bigger threat right now. April turned to face him full, and realized for the first time how menacing he could be. He sent some uncharateristically uncoordinated blows her way, but she managed to deflect them all. April felt quite proud of hersel for all of two seconds. Mikey was back on the attack, He tried to grab her from behind. He dove at her from a couple feet away, she dropped to her knees and ducked her head down and he few straight over her and crashed into Raph. They tumbled backwards and landed in a heap on the floor.

"Mikey! Get off me!" Raph yelled from under his little brother. Mikey just laughed to himself and rolled sideways.

April hopped back to her feet, only to be caught off guard by Donatello. He grabbed her from behind around the shoulders and she struggled against him for a couple of moments.

"Come on April, you know what to do." Donnie whispered to her.

April tried to focus and remember what she was supposed to do. She grabbed his wrist and forearm tightly with both hands, twisted her torso slightly and threw her hips backwards and her torso forwards. Donnie flew straight over her shoulder and landed with a thud on his shell just in front of her.

April and Holly fended off the boys for a good fifteen minutes. They were starting to get tired, but kept on fighting since they would not be able to call a time out if they were fighting for real.

April had Mikey on one side of her and Donnie on the other, Leo had stepped out of the action for a while to observe what the girls were doing and see if he could spot and issues they might be having. She blocked a punch from Donnie, ducked under another sent her way by Mikey, then jumped backwards as the two turtles attacked at once. They ended up crashing into each other and crumpled on the floor in front of her. April shook her head and couldn't help but smile.

Holly meanwhile was trying to deal with Raph. He always bragged that he was the best fighter out of the turtle boys, and even though he was taking it easy on her, he was still considerably faster and stronger than she was. He was really putting her to the test today though, he kept sending different attacks her way. First came punches, then he tried to take out her legs with a sweep. She casually hopped over his leg and then she had to duck under his foot that almost took her head off.

"What happened to not trying to hurt us?" Holly said while still dipping and weaving around Raph.

"You guys were doing so well I though I'd step it up a level." Raph lunged at her again.

Holly hopped backwards away from him and danced just out of his reach. "I don't know, you haven't landed a hit yet." She was smiling cheekily at him, trying to wind him up.

"Oh, Don't even go there." Raph said with a chuckle. Holly just poked her tongue out at him, then had to roll sideways as Raph dove at her.

Raph and Holly knew they were supposed to be practicing seriously, but they were having too much fun teasing each other to really pay attention. Holly burst out laughing as Raph landed on his face trying to tackle her. He looked up her from the mats and narrowed his eyes at her. While she busy doubled over clutching her sides, he grabbed her around the knees and watched her topple over. Holly landed on Raphs shell, she tried to push herself away from him since they were still fighting, but he used his superior strength to flip her over and pin her to the mat. She lay there still laughing with tears pouring down her face, Raph let a smile cross his lips as he looked down at her.

"Would you guys quit messing around already?" Leo was standing with his arms crossed looking annoyed.

Holly lifted her head off the floor to look at him, "Kill joy."

"You two can goof off later, when we're not busy training." Leo huffed.

"You two are in trouble." Mikey sang and pointed at Raph and Holly.

"Alright." Holly shoved Raph and stood back up. "Would you like us to continue?"

"No, you can do wall squats, and Raph you can go clean all the equipment." Leo said shortly.

"Dude, you got me in trouble." Holly shoved Raph playfully. "I'm sorry Leo." She wobbled her bottom lip at him.

"Just go." He pointed at the wall, and she winked as she walked by.

While Holly and Raph were being punished, Leo was letting April take a short break. They along with Donnie and Mikey sat on the floor discussing how they thought the girls had done in their little scenario.

"You guys were doing great, right up until someone quit taking it seriously." Leo yelled the last bit over his shoulder.

"Thanks, but I don't feel like we did that great." April said.

"Why not?" Leo asked.

"I don't know. Practicing with you guys is all well and good, but won't it be way different if we actually have to fight." April said.

"Yes, but that's why we practice, so it all becomes second nature." Donnie said.

"I guess." April said.

"Hey, how long do I have to keep doing this?" Holly said from the wall.

"Until I say stop." Leo replied with a smug grin. Holly just rolled her eye, she's he knew he was just reminding her that he was the boss, but she didn't mind, she did like to push his buttons and knew she should really should behave more.

"Yes sir." She said giving him a salute.

"Anyway, hopefully you won't need to actually deal with the Purple Dragons, and you guys gave them the slip a couple of times already so maybe your luck will hold out." Leo said.

April did not looked convinced, she didn't want to fight if she could help it and her luck hadn't been the best since her father had gone missing.

After Leo felt Holly and Raph had been punished enough, the group continued to practice for a while longer. April and Donnie broke off from the group to continue with her Bo staff lessons, and things felt different than they had before. Where Donnie used to be jumpy and nervous whenever they were together, he seemed much more confident and relaxed. When they accidentally brushed each others hands, he would smile obviously at her, and it sent goosebumps all up her arms. She had to talk to Holly as soon as possible, she needed to freak out and act like a girl.

Holly and April sat on the floor of the training room drinking deeply from some water bottles. They had been training for a couple of hours now, and Hollys legs were about to give out due to the fact that she had to do about a hundred squats.

"Hey, are we done here or what?" Mikey asked Leo.

"Yeah, I guess we can call it." Leo turned to Splinter who was still sitting in the training room with them. "Unless there's anything you want us to do."

"No, you have done well today. Enjoy they rest of the evening together." Splinter said quietly.

"Alright!" Mikey yelled, "Who wants to play some video games?"

"Sure, but I get to pick the game this time." Holly said, she tried to stand up but her legs still felt like jelly. "Um, give me a second though."

"Alright, but if you take too long I'm picking the game." Mikey ran into the living room and dove for the controllers. The others could hear him laughing to himself as he switched on the television to watch some cartoon.

"Need any help?" Raph offered Holly his hand.

"No! She's fine." April swatted his hand away, eve though Holly had been reaching for it. "I'll take care of her. Go on, it's fine." She shoved Raph towards the door, and promptly pushed Leo and Donnie out with him.

"Alright, gees we'll go. You could have just told us you wanted to talk to her." Raph said once he had been ushered out of the room. April didn't even respond, she just shut the door in their faces and hurried back to Hollys side.

Splinter had been planning on meditating once the teens had left the room, but he sensed that April wanted to discuss something with Holly and decided it would probably be better if he left them alone.

"Master Splinter, if you want to stay in here we can leave. April didn't mean to be so rude." Holly said glaring at her friend.

"Oh no, I don't want to get in the way of girl talk. I may be an old rat, but I know a thing or two about girl talk." He left the girls alone and made his way out to the kitchen for some more tea.

"Alright, what is going on?" Holly asked.

April could barely contain herself. "So, I don't normally do the girly thing, but I kissed Donnie earlier." She bit her lower lip waiting for Holly to respond.

Holly meanwhile just blinked up at her friend. "Wait a second, What?"

"You suck at being a girl." April folded her arms across her chest.

"No I don't! But, are you serious?" A smile started spreading across Hollys face. "Did you really kiss him?"

April nodded and Holly squealed delightedly. The two girl giggled together as April spilled all the details, and in true best friend fashion, Holly oohed and aahed in all the right places.

"So you just launched yourself at him?" Holly asked finally after she had settled down.

"Kind of, I just couldn't help myself." April said.

"That's alright, I don't think he minded." Holly laughed.

"Probably not." April agreed. "Anyway, let's get out of here. I'm sure Mikey already picked out a game and has started without us."

Holly pushed herself to her feet, her legs still didn't want to work properly and she stumbled slightly as they made their way out into the living area.

"Holly, are you alright?" Leo asked.

"Oh yeah, as soon as I get the feeling back in my legs I'll be great." She gave him a sarcastic thumbs up, and any sympath he had felt for her was gone.

"Then you should stop flirting when your supposed to be training." Leo snapped back with just as much sarcasm.

Raph choked on the soda he had been drinking. Holly just laughed, "Alright, I get the point. Nice burn by the way."

"I can be just as sarcastic as you." Leo said feeling smug.

"Yeah, Of course." Holly said laying it on thick. She rolled her eyes and winked at Raph, who had to stifle a chuckle by pretending he was still choking when Leo glared at him.

The gang played video games for a while, until Holly and April pulled out a deck of cards. They stared playing two person games, untill Donnie's curiosity got the better of him and he had to join in. A while later Leo decided he was bored too and wanted to join in and learn how to play hearts with his brother. Master Splinter came out of his room looking for another pot of tea, but he got distracted by the sounds of laughter and conversation. He watched the teens play a hand or two, then decided he would join in the fun for a change.

Raph and Mikey however remained isolated, Raph behind another of his thousands of comics and Mikey was captivated by the television. They did participate in the conversation at least, and soon the night had flown by and everyone started getting sleepy.

Splinter headed back to his room first, as usual, but he was followed shortly by the turtle boys. The girls passed out almost as soon as the lights had been shut off, they had had an eventful day and had earned a good nights sleep. Donatello fell asleep witch a smile on his face, he was still thinking about the kiss he had gotten earlier in the day and couldn't help but smile every time he remembered the feeling it had given him. Leo and Mikey stayed up for a while in their rooms doing their favorite things. Mikey played games on his T-phone while Leo watched reruns of his favorite show on the laptop he had borrowed from April. But eventually they both passed out and enjoyed a full nights rest.

Raph on the other hand tossed and turned for most of the night. He couldn't figure out what was wrong. Yeah, he had panicked earlier, but he had enjoyed the rest of his night with the girls. He had an uneasy feeling in his gut that he couldn't shake, but aftere long enough of laying there his body finally gave in and he drifted off into a restless sleep.

* * *

Hey guys! I'm sorry this chapter took so long, I had it typed up last week but my tablet freaked out and deleted the whole thing, so I had to start all over! However, I don't think it was too bad since I'm much happier with this version than I was the last one.

Again, thank you all for the lovely comments! I'm so glad so many people are enjoying my fic and I am loving writing it. I promis I will finish kept posting, and I'm reading all you posts and suggestions and taking them into account when I write.


	23. Chapter 23

The girls had to leave the turtles the following afternoon. April had to go home as her aunt had stated asking too many questions, and she had stopped believing that she was only with Holly. Holly didn't really want to go home since she would be alone, but she missed being able to sleep in her own bed and really didn't want to spend another night on a couch.

The turtles, along with Splinter, we're not thrilled that April had to go back above ground. They would have much preferred for her to stay with them, where it was safe and they could take care of her. However, they knew they couldn't just shut her up down in the sewers, it may work for them, but they didn't have family on the surface to answer to.

"You guys need to relax, I'll be fine." April waved off their concern, she appreciated that they worried about her, but sometimes it was too much.

"Text us when your home. And call us if you need anything." Donnie was trying to stay calm, but after the close call the girls had had yesterday, it was proving difficult.

"Enough. We'll be fine already." April gave him a stern look. Donnie nodded and looked at his feet. April felt awful, he was just trying to look out for her and she had overreacted. She pulled him into a quick hug, making sure to give him a good squeeze. "I'm sorry, I will let you know when I'm home. I promise." He gave her a weak smile as he let her go.

Holly, Raph, Leo and Splinter were all standing by the entrance to the lair. Holly was going through all her belongings making sure she had everything she needed, while chatting with the rest of the group.

"I don't think we'll have too many problems. The Purple Dragon is after April but the only lead they have right now is where she lives. So long as were careful we shouldn't run into anyone until we get close to her apartment." Holly rummaged through here bag, double checking that she had her toothbrush.

"Either way, you guys should be on the look out for the whole journey." Leo said, like it wasn't the obvious thing to do.

"She lives like nine blocks away. I'm sure we'll be just fine." Holly said.

"The fact that she lives as close as she dose is enough to cause concern. The Purple Dragon are going to be looking in the surrounding neighborhood for April, and the closer we are the more likely you are to run into them." Splinter said, his face was very serious.

Holly didn't dare get sarcastic with him right now. "Your right, of course. We'll be careful."

"Just take care of yourselves." Splinter placed a hand on Holly shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile, which she returned. In truth, she wasn't particularly happy about taking April home either, but there wasn't much of an option.

"Ok, lets go." April said turning around. She grabbed her bag off the floor and walked over to Holly and the others.

"Sure, let's get this over with." Holly picked up her belongings and the two girls started towards the exit. "See you guys later."

All the turtles waved and said their goodbyes to the girls, all except Raph. He was stood just behind his big brother with his arms folded, he had been unusually quite all morning, and everyone had noticed. He had woken up and gone straight for the coffee, which was normal, but after that he had refused to sit down with the others for breakfast and then had retreated back into his room and hadn't come out until the girls were getting ready to leave.

Leo elbowed Raph to try and get him to act more social. "Stop sulking." he hissed at his brother.

"Hey!" Raph scowled at Leo, he then glanced an the girls briefly. "Later." He stalked off towards the training room, Leo shook his head disapprovingly.

"What is up with him today?" April asked no one in particular. Holly shook her head and shrugged, this was the first time that she wasn't really sure what was going on. "Oh we'll, let's go already. I'm not getting in any more trouble."

The girls left and quickly made it to the surface. They slipped onto the street unnoticed by the passers by and set off towards Aprils apartment. After a few minutes of walking, both the girls couldn't help but notice the lack of Purple Dragon members around. They had expected to see at least one since the Fortune Cookie Factory was in this neighborhood, but there wasn't any of them mingled in with the rest of the crowd.

The red head and the brunette looked at each other with matching expressions of confusion. "I don't understand." Holly said, "We should have seen someone by now."

"Hey, I'm not complaining." April laughed.

They continued walking along the streets, still expecting to run into someone who was out to get them. But still there was nothing, all the way to Aprils home they didn't see a single gang member.

"Ok, what is going on?" Holly asked as they climbed the few steps up to Aprils front door.

"I don't know, but I'm actually more concerned now than I was when they were following us." April raised her eyebrows at her friend, Holly couldn't agree more.

"Lets go upstairs, I'm going to call a cab to take me home today." Holly didn't feel comfortable walking by herself. April unlocked the door and the two girls hurried upstairs. Aprils aunt was home, and was baking in the kitchen. But April ran straight to the front window and peered out looking for any signs of trouble.

Holly walked over and stood beside April at the window. They both looked up and down the street once before looking at each other. They turned back to the street and kept watch in silence, the only sound in the apartments came from the little radio Aprils aunt was listening to while she banged around with the bowels and pans while she was making cookies.

"Do you have binoculars?" Holly asked suddenly, she was squinting at one of the buildings just down the street from where they were.

"I have no idea. Why?"

"The blinds on that window keep opening and closing, I want to know who's watching the street as closely as we are." Holly shook her head, she was almost certain it was one of the Purple Dragon members. After managing to ditch the guy yesterday, they must be trying to attempt a much more subtle approach. Unfortunatly subtlety was not something the gang was famous for. After all, they were usually caught doing whatever criminal act they were working on and rarely made off with anything worth while when they did manage to steal something.

"Nice." April said, "I feel better knowing where they are. If we were to lead those morons to the boys I would never forgive myself."

"Oh god, I know. But I bet there's more somewhere." Holly said

"Probably, but don't worry about it right now, your cab is here." April pointed at the yellow car that had just pulled up outside her apartment.

Holly have April a quick hug and yelled goodbye to her aunt as she ran out the door and down the stairs. She scanned the street one last time and checked out the window of the other building before she dipped into the cab and Let the cabbie drive her home.

April watched Holly go, and once the cab was out of sight she pulled out her phone to let the boys she was home. A few seconds passed and she received a message from Donnie. It was just a simple "I'm glad your safe." But it made her smile none the less.

"April, could you come help me for a minute?" Aprils aunt called from the other room.

"Yeah I'll be right there." April put her phone in her pocket and rushed into the kitchen.

Fong was tired of having his men calling up day after day saying they kept loosing the red headed girl. So, he decided to go on stake out himself.

He had been sitting across the street from the girls home waiting for her and her friend to come back, but they had been gone all night and half of the day. He couldn't stay awake much longer, and the idiot who was with him was pressing on his last nerve. Fong peered out of the shutters into the street below. If those two chicks didn't show up in the next half an hour, he was done.

"Hey, boss? Why are we trying to get these kids anyway?" The moronic gang member asked.

"Because Stockman and Bradford want them, and I rather like my head where it is." Fong replied shortly.

"But they're just kids! What use are they?" The goon asked, he was playing with a deck of cards, shuffling hem over and over again. A vein in Fongs temple pulsed in annoyance.

"They can lead us to those freaks, and if you do that one more time I will break both your hands." Fong sounded calm, but he was deadly serious. The other man stopped fidgeting instantly and sat on his hands to protect them form his boss.

Not two minutes later, two girls rounded the corner at the end of the block. They were still a little far away for him to be sure, but he would be willing to make a bet that the red headed one was the one they were looking for. He rubbed his hands together excitedly as he watched them walking down the street cautiously.

"They boys said these two girls are always together, right?" Fong asked with amusement in his voice.

"The brown haired girl with the glasses right?" The other gang member asked hesitantly. "Umm, yeah."

"Interesting." Fong continued watching the girls. They walked up the stairs and through the front door of the apartment complex. Fong relaxed for a moment, he had been worried for a while there that he would have to go back to his employers with bad news. He allowed himself a second to breath, before peeking back out at the street. "Has anyone followed the other girl home?" Fong turned to his companion.

"No, we're we supposed to?"

"No, but I already know where she lives." Fong peered out at the street again, a cab was pulling up out side the apartment and the brunette girl hurried out to it. She looked around, and her gaze landed on his window for a moment before she ducked into the cab and pulled away.

"She knows we're here." Fong said to himself. "That ones in on it all too." Fong stood swiftly and rushed to the door of the storage room.

"Wait! Where a you going?" The dumb gang member asked.

"I'm going home, you stay here and watch end red head. If she leaves, follow her." Fong left his confused partner feeling much better than he had thought he could. After some rest, he would let the others know what he had found out, and they would be able to formulate a plan of action. Although he already had a plan swirling in his head. Tomorrow would be a good day to be a criminal.

Raphael had been avoiding everyone else in the lair all day. He knew they would want to grill him about his weird behavior, and if he was honest, he didn't much feel like talking just yet. For a while he abused the training dummy, letting all his anger out with every punch or kick he threw. After that he had hidden in his room, trying to read his mountain of comics to keep him mind occupied. But that had only worked for so long.

Raph cracked open his door and peeked out to see what everyone else was doing. His brothers were all goofing around in the living room, playing games together and having fun. He couldn't see Splinter which meant he was either in the kitchen or in the training room, and he was hoping for the latter. He crept out of his room and tiptoed over to the training rooms sliding door, which he opened just enough for him to slip inside.

"I was wondering if you would come to me today." Splinter was sat meditating in the center of the room, his eyes were closed and he had a pot of tea by one of his knees. He opened his eyes and reached for his cup, sipping at his tea while watching his son closely.

"I need your advice,and I'm just going to cut straight to the point." Raph wrung his hands together, he didn't usually confront his issues face on, but this was important. "I nearly did something really stupid yesterday, and I don't know how to fix it."

"How can you fix something if it was never broken?" Splinter asked.

Raph let out a irked sigh, he had a feeling Splinter would miss the point here. "Alright, yes, I didn't actually do anything wrong. But what if I had? What kind of trouble would we be in if I had gone running around above ground in board daylight?"

"Raphael, there are some things in life you have to lean on your own. Finding the balance between caring enough for someone to risk yourself, and knowing when they are capable enough to not need your help, is one of them." Master Splinter set his cup back down, and when he looked back up Raph was staring at him with his arms folded in front of him. The old rat let out a little chuckle.

"Really? That's all I get." Raph huffed.

"I will say that you did act foolishly yesterday. However, if you learn something from your foolishness you will become a stronger person because of it." Splinter rose from the mats and walked over to his son. He placed his hands on Raphaels shoulders and smiled down at him. "You know what they say. 'No harm, no foul.'"

"Where do you hear these things?" Raph asked shaking his head at his father.

"I am an old man, I have experienced many things in life, and I have a lot of free time to watch the television." Splinter chuckled lightly as he saw a grin sneak onto Raphs face.

"Sometimes I worry your going senile." Raph said cheekily.

"Even if I were, I could still teach you a thing or two." Splinter dug his finger under Raphs jaw and walked him over to the door. "Now if you excuse me, you did interrupt my meditation." He dropped Raph just outside of the door.

Raph rubbed his jaw, but he had a small smile on his face. It never failed, Splinter always knew just what to say to make him feel better.


	24. Chapter 24

Holly and April had been texting each other most of the afternoon and on into the evening. April had been keeping an eye on her street, looking out for any other suspicious activity, while Holly had nothing better to do than chat with her friend. Her mother still wasn't home and her apartment felt very empty and lonely having spent most of the week at the turtles home.

The sun was setting over the city, and Holly had the doors to the balcony wide open. A warm summer breeze floated into the living room while Holly walked around looking for something to do. She had already showered, done her laundry, cleaned her room, done the dusting and made herself a healthy treat. She had to admit that hanging out with the others was much more fun, and even when Raph was being grouchy, it was better than being alone.

Speaking or Raph, she hadn't heard from him at all. She had texted him earlier to let him know she was at home, but he hadn't replied. She wasn't really worried about him physically, it was his emotional state she was concerned about. Normally he was all too willing to spill his guts to her, but he had been acting differently today. She really didn't know what was going on, he was just fine yesterday.

Holly sighed to herself and walked out onto the balcony, she set her phone down on the little table and leaned against the railing, watching the sun sink below the skyline and the lights of the city winking on one at a time. She picked up her phone and decided to try Raph one more time before she called it a night. She typed him a quick message saying that she was just making sure he was ok, and that she and April were fine, and pressed the send button with a sigh. She didn't expect a response, but a few minutes later her phone buzzed across the little table. She picked it up and opened the message.

"Hey, how's it going?" Was all it said. Holly felt a flair or irritation rise up with in her, and she was not above letting him know it.

"Really? You've been acting weird all day and all I get is 'Hey'?" She sent the message hoping he would read it how she had intended to send it. She tapped her foot impatiently waiting for him to respond.

"I know, I was being a jerk. I'm sorry." He sent back. She was a little stunned, she had been expecting him to be more defensive or at least crack a joke. Her phone buzzed again, "What are you up to?"

"I was about to go to bed" She typed to him.

"What!? It's like, 9?" Holly laughed to herself, she could practically hear him mocking her.

"Yeah I know, but I have been sleeping on your couch for the last week and I am quite excited to sleep in my queen sized bed." She typed as quickly as she could, smiling to herself as she did so.

A few seconds later her phone beeped again, "Yeah, thats not happening." Holly frowned slightly, She wasn't exactly sure what he meant. She sent him a message asking him, but he didn't respond. She started pacing as she sent him another message. He wasn't seriously on his way over, was he?

Holly quickly ran to her bedroom and threw on some actual clothes, and checked her hair and teeth in the mirror. She then proceeded back out onto her balcony to wait.

Raphael raced across the rooftops towards Hollys apartment. He didn't want to think about her being home alone, and he wanted to see her anyway. He had acted like a moron earlier and he wanted to make it up to her, and what better way than to keep her company when she was lonely?

He climbed up to the roof of the apartment building and over to where he knew Hollys apartment was. As he peered over the edge, he saw her out on the balcony staring out over the city. It had been dark for a while now, and the temperature was steadily dropping. Holly had grabbed a sweater and was currently wrapped up in it staring out at the city again.

Raph took a moment to just watch her. They were very rarely alone, since they spent all of their time in the sewers with his brothers, and when they were together he usually had on his tough guy face. He peeked over the ledge a little further.

"You didn't have to wait outside." Raph said.

Holly span around and looked up. A smile spread across her face and she felt herself blush slightly. She didn't know why, but she was feeling a little nervous, this would be the first time they had really been alone when she wasn't crying.

"I can't believe you came all the way here." She almost laughed.

"I didn't think an apology through the phone would be good enough." He grimaced, feeling ashamed of himself.

"Don't worry about it." She waved him off, "Do you want to come down? Or should I come up?"

"That's your call." Raph chuckled.

"Alright, then help me up." She rushed over to the stone railing and carefully climbed up onto it. She reached up as high as she could since it was at least a ten foot climb. Raph grabbed onto her hand and easily lifted her up, careful not to bash her against the ledge.

"Wow, I keep forgetting how strong you are." Holly said.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." He pretended to flex his biceps giving her his best smug face.

"Shut up." She gave him a good jab, making him chuckle. "It's a good job I'm here to keep your ego in check."

"Yeah, that's probably true." They smiled at each other, letting a comfortable silence fall between them.

"Hey. How was your trip home? I didn't really get much info earlier." He asked.

"Oh right. Well, the Purple Dragons have taken to stalking April sneakily. They were hiding in another building peeking out at us through the blinds, and I took a cab home since I didn't feel much like getting into any trouble myself." Holly summarized for him.

"Hmm, they're almost getting too smart for their own good." Raph snorted. He sat down and leaned against the little wall that prevented people from falling over the edge, Holly joined him and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"Actually, I have a feeling if we don't do something soon, they'll resort to doing something drastic to get what they want." She let a worried look cross her face.

He nodded his agreement, they knew that the moronic gang wanted April so they could find out where the turtles where, but they didn't know how to make them leave her alone. "We'll figure it out. Besides, Donnie would be crushed if anything happened to her before he could make him move."

Holly's eyes went wide and her mouth fell open slightly. "Wait a second. You don't know what happened, do you?" She bounced happily and giggled to herself at is ignorance.

"What?" Raph looked confused, and a little scared, by her behavior. He wasn't accustom to 'girl talk'.

Holly proceeded to tell him all about the kiss that April had shared with Donnie. She was so enthusiastic that she would start a new sentence before finishing the last one.

"Are you kidding me?" Raph looked shocked. "I can't believe he didn't tell us."

"You can't let on that you know though." Holly said.

"Why not? Can't I just rub his nose in it a little bit?" Raph said sounding disappointed.

"Because, he's not ready for you to know just yet." Holly stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Raph just looked confused again. "Then why did you tell me?"

"So that when he does finally say something, you don't hound him for information." Holly said.

"That makes no sense at all. Are these like, girl rules?" He looked befuddled for a moment.

"Just trust me. When he brings it up, let him talk, and when he's done, just say 'Yeah, I know.'" Holly beamed at him.

"That is crazy." He shook his head at her, but let it go.

"I promise, that's all you need to do and it will make his day." Holly smiled smugly at him.

"Well anyway. What do you want to do?" He said changing the subject.

"I don't care, I'm perfectly happy just sitting here for now." Holly shrugged.

Raph thought about it for a moment, and got an idea. "Well, I haven't really eaten much today, and if you want to come with me, I actually know a place we can go." He grinned.

"You know a place?" She looked at him skeptically.

"Yeah, I do." His grin widened.

"Alright, I'm curious." She stood up, now ready for an adventure. "Let's go."

Without another word, Raph stood and walked to the opposite edge of the building. He checked the street for passers by and turned back to Holly. He held his hand out to her, apparently they were not going to take the elevator.

Holly hesitated for the briefest second. She knew he could lift her easily but she didn't much feel like hurling herself off her building. But, she trusted him, completely, and before she could change her mind she took his hand.

They just looked at each other for a second. Raph let a smile creep onto his face before pulling her closer, he slipped an arm around her waste. "Ready?"

She didn't answer with words, she just took a deep breath and nodded. He launched the two of them off the roof top, he heard Holly gasp and she gripped onto his arm with surprising strength. They clambered down the building and across the alley to the building next door. Raph and Holly made their way across the rooftops, walking along the flat surfaces, but Raph would scoop Holly up when their was a gap to cross, or a few story drop to survive.

Raph dropped them down onto the street in front of a sushi shop Holly had never been to before. He let go of her waste but kept a hold of her arm just incase she was feeling a little wobbly.

"Are you alright?" He asked her with a grin.

"That was," Holly took a breath, searching for the word. "Exhilarating." He let out a bark of laughter, unable to believe that she had actually enjoyed climbing all over the city. "Do you feel that every time?"

"Yeah." He nodded to her. "Come on, let's go in." He had his hand on the door before Holly realized what he was doing.

"Wait, your just going to walk in the front door?" Holly had a look of amusement on her face, this was the first time they had gone anywhere that made her feel like she was hanging out with a normal teenager.

"Yes, now come on already, I'm starving." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the store after him. "Mr. Murakami? Are you here?"

An elderly blind man shuffled out of the back room, "Raphael? Is that you?"

"Any chance of getting some dinner?" Raph asked the old man.

"Of course, of course. You don't even have to ask." Mr. Murakami hurried around the tables in his restaurant and flipped around the sing in his window to 'closed'. "And who is this you have brought with you today? Whoever they are, they're too quiet to be April."

Holly laughed and introduced herself before they were ushered towards the bar so that they could watch their food being prepared. They sat admiring Mr. Murakami's ability to make perfect California rolls despite the fact that he couldn't see. They sat for quite a while trying many different kinds of rolls, Holly realized that Raph was quite adventurous when it came to food. He was willing to try anything offered to him, and Mr. Murakami would beam every time he expressed his approval of the last roll he ate, and Raph loved them all.

"And here I thought you only ate Pizza." Holly said before taking a nibble of a tuna roll. She popped it all in her mouth when she realized how delicious it was.

"Anything is good compared to what we used to eat." Raph devoured a piece of eel sushi, Holly just wined, she wasn't brave enough to try at one.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I don't really want to know." She said with a grim look on her face.

"Yeah, it grossed April out too." He finished off the last roll in front of him, and he sat back in his chair letting out a satisfied sigh.

"I take it your full?" Mr. Murakami said with a chuckle. He started cleaning off his work station, feeling his way back to the kitchen to dispose of the contaminated knifes.

"What do we owe you?" Holly said pulling out her wallet.

"Oh no my dear, this one was on me." Holly frowned at Raph who chuckled. Mr. Murakami sensed her confusion and chuckled along with him, "You guys make sure those Purple Dragon guys don't kick my butt, and you can come back any time you like."

"Thats very kind of you, but I would feel bad if I didn't do something." Holly said feeling guilty.

"I tell you what, you can do the dishes if you really want to." Mr. Murakami turned and sat in one of the chairs that dotted the small restaurant. Holly immediately jumped up and started washing the chopping boards and fillet knifes for the old man.

The two teenagers stayed for a short time after that, keeping the old man company and getting to know each other better. Mr. Murakami told Holly how the turtles had saved him and he knew exactly what they were despite his disability, although he didn't see it as a disability at all. Sometime around eleven thirty, Holly and Raph agreed that they should be leaving. Especially since Raph hadn't actually told anyone he was going out. They bade good bye to the generous chef and set off back towards Hollys home.

Fong stood before the thing that used to be Bradford and Baxter Stockman. Normally he would be shaking in his boots, but today he had good news for them. Well, sort of.

"Why are you here?" Bradford yelled. He was not pleased to see the gang leaders without the red headed girl.

"I have some good news. We can snatch the girl even if she is with her friend." He paused for dramatic effect, hopefully this information would lead to a raise, or at least less of a lashing later.

"And why is that?" Bradford asked trying to keep is voice calm.

"Because the other girl is in on it too." Fong said, satisfaction written all over his face.

"How can you be sure?" Stockman asked, he narrowed his eyes at his unexpected colleague.

"Because, the friend is the girl who lives one floor up from you." Fong rocked back on his heels, obviously proud of himself.

"So what? It's not that surprising since we're all in the same district." Stockman said, waving off this information.

Fong sighed exasperatedly. "Ok, the night your information was taken from your apartment, that girl was on the elevator with us. I thought I saw someone dip into the stair well, and I'd bet anything it was her spying on us."

"Thats actually an intelligent assumption." Stockman scratched his chin. "What's wrong with you today?"

"I'm telling you, she knows about them." Fong was getting annoyed, he hated that Stockman doubted his intelligence, he didn't get to be leader of the gang on his charm alone.

"Alright. I'll do some digging and see what I can find out about her, It shouldn't be too hard." Stockman said, he walked over to his desk and flopped down into the chair. "Thank god for the Freedom of Information Act." he chuckled to himself as his fingers flew expertly over the keyboard.

He pulled up the list of tenants in his apartment building by hacking the managements private database. After figuring out which apartment the girl and her mother lived in, Stockman had a name he could search.

"How are you going to find out about the girl?" Fong asked excitedly.

Stockman looked at him like he was a moron. "I'm going to type their name into google." Bradford laughed gruffly.

"Your joking, right? It cant be that simple." Fong let a flash of irritation cross his face.

"You don't have to look very hard to find information anymore." Stockman scoffed. He pushed his glasses back up his nose as Fong went to sulk behind him. He typed in the teens last name, and was surprised by the articles that popped up from the search engine. "Ho Ho. It looks like I'm living with a celebrity."

"What did you find?" Bradford asked.

"Well, this girls mother is a fashion designer. I know thats not terribly important, but she is headlining a show that is currently running in Chicago, it has been for almost a week." Stockman leaned back in his chair and swiveled around to face his companions.

"So?" Fong huffed, still sulking in the corner.

"So?" Repeated Bradford. "That means that our little friend has been home alone." A wicked smile stretched over his sharp teeth.

Fong perked up immediately. He didn't exactly like the idea of roughing up a teenage girl, but he was tired of the turtles screwing up his plans and he was dying to get back at them for all the trouble they'd caused him. "I guess I had better go pay this girl a visit."

Fong stepped out of the fortune cookie factory onto the empty streets. It was late, almost midnight, as he started making his way towards Stockmans apartment building. As he passed by the convenience store, he saw a couple of his fellow gang members loitering around the alley way, being a nuisance. He whistled to them, and they scurried across the street to follow his orders.

"Your all coming with me to visit one of the turtles contacts on the surface. I won't need you to come in with me, just make sure were not disturbed." Fong announced. His henchmen nodded, they knew exactly what to do. The group turned and stalked off in the artificial lights of New York City.


	25. Chapter 25

Raphael and Holly dropped down onto her apartment balcony and quickly ducked through the doors. Just incase any of the neighbors were still awake, Holly closed the heavy curtains behind them before turning on any lights. She turned around to find that Raph had made himself comfy on her couch and was watching her.

She raised her eyebrows at him, asking a silent question. He must have gotten it as he just grinned and shook his head. She walked over to him and sat down.

"I'm surprised the others haven't been blowing up your phone trying to find you." She said, swinging her feet up onto the couch.

"They probably are, but I didn't bring it." Raph rested his hands behind his head and leaned back.

"But what if they need you? They won't be able to get ahold of you."

"Have they tried to get ahold of you?" He asked with his usual level of smugness.

"No." She replied, knowing where this was going.

"Then they don't need me." He laughed as she shoved him. "What?"

"How do you know that they will know your here?" She screwed up her face, going over that sentence in her head again to make sure it made sence.

"It's not like I have a wild and crazy social life here. I know two people, and Donnie would be so mad if I went to see April without him." Raph scoffed.

"I suppose your right." She had to agree with him. She sank back in the couch and sighed. "Thanks for coming tonight. I guess my life is a little boring without you guys in it."

"Yeah, we are pretty great." He smirked.

Holly just rolled her eyes at him. "And so modest too."

Raph chuckled again, "Hey, someone's got to point out how awesome I am."

"Well, I would tell you, but we don't needed your ego to get any bigger. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm here to keep yours in check." Holly said jokingly.

"No one can do it like you." He was smiling at her, but it wasn't his normal cocky smile, It was softer and more sincere.

Holly blushed and smiled back at him, she wasn't used to dealing with this side of Raphael, but she had to admit that she was enjoying it.

Raph cleared his throat and instantly put on his tough guy face again. "I should go, it's getting late and I'm probably already in trouble." He stood hastily, he had managed to make himself uncomfortable by letting his mouth blurt out what he had been thinking, and it showed.

Holly followed him to the French doors, she cracked the curtains slightly to peek out at her neighbors balconies, although she didn't expect to see anyone. "Alright, it's all clear. Be careful."

"I am a huge mutated turtle, who is going to mess with me?" He said. Holly just laughed, it was true, she wouldn't want to be a Purple Dragon and bump into him in a dark alley. "So, uh." he stuttered, "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Of course." They smiled at each other, and before Holly could even blink, Raph had disappeared out of the door and up onto the roof tops.

Fong and the two other Purple Dragon members walked the city streets towards Stockmans apartment building. They stuck as best they could to dark alleyways and shadowy corners so that any passers by would be unlikely to catch their faces.

Stockman had given Fong a case of fake notes that they were going to be "delivering" to his apartment, that would at least get them in the building. However, getting to the girl was up to them. He and the two meat heads knocked on the glass doors to the apartment building.

Bud, the door man, looked up from his newspaper and saw a small group of men standing on the other side of the glass. He stood and walked over to them and opened the door a crack.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" He asked politely, although every fiber of his being screamed at him to lock them out.

"Yeah, Mr. Stockman has asked that we drop these papers off at his apartment. I have his door key but not the apartment key." Fong said, he waggled the key in front of himself to make a point.

"You can come in, but I will have to ask that your associates stay in the lobby. I'm sure you can handle dropping off a brief case on your own." Bud wasn't about to let these three go wandering though the building. He had seen the skinny one before and he hadn't liked the look of him then. But now he had two muscle men with him and he liked that even less.

Fong just nodded, he had expected something like this to happen. Stockmans old paycheck was capable of affording an upscale apartment, and the other tenants wouldn't be to thrilled if anyone could wander through their building.

Bud let them into the building, and returned to his post behind his desk. The two muscle bound morons took a seat on the bench that was on the far wall of the lobby. He watched the skinny one go the the elevator and press the "up" button, and after a few minutes, the car arrived with a ding and Fong climbed aboard. Bud watched the needle as the car took him up to Stockmans floor, just to be sure he was going where he said he was.

Fong got off the elevator on Stockmans floor, but instead of going to his bosses apartment, he made a beeline straight for the stairs and hurried up to the top floor. He ran a hand through his hair, straightened his jacket and made sure to have a smug grin on his face before he knocked on the door.

Holly had been one the phone with April when someone banged on her apartment door . She frowned slightly as she wasn't expecting any one to be visiting her this late. She supposed it could be one of the neighbors just checking in on her, which wouldn't be that surprising since her mother often asked them to keep an eye on her. She crossed her living room and pulled open the door.

"Hello. My boss would love to have a word with you." Fong said dramatically. Holly was caught off guard and almost dropped her phone. Without thinking she tried to slam the door shut in his face, but Fong was quicker. He jammed his foot over the threshold so the door wouldn't close and forced his way into her home.

"What are you doing here?" She said raising her voice hoping that one of her neighbors would hear the commotion.

"I told you already, I'm here to take you to my boss." Fong stepped towards the young girl, But she darted farther into the apartment out of sight. "Don't make this harder than it has to be." He followed her through the hallway cautiously.

As he stepped around the dividing wall to the kitchen, he had to duck as the girl swung a frying pan at his head. He stumbled backwards and bumped into a wall, and Holly used his moment of disorientation to jam the pan in her hand right into his gut. Fong doubled over clutching his stomach, he hacked and coughed trying to catch his breath. Holly didn't wait another moment, she grabbed her phone and keys off the counter and ran as fast as she could out of her apartment.

April could hear everything that was happening through the phone. Apparently Dog Pound and the others had figured out that Holly was involved with everything and had gone after her instead. She tried to yell frantically down the line but it was no use. Holly and the man exchanged one or two sentences, but after that all she could hear was rustling and the occasional grunt from Holly. She hang up the phone and did the only thing she could. She called Leonardo for help.

Holly didn't really have a plan of action. She took the stairs three at a time but she knew that the Purple Dragon guy was hot on her heels. She stopped briefly a couple of floors down and decided to go down the fire escape at the end of the hall way. She might be able to slip out that way, provided there wasn't a whole battalion of gang members waiting for her. They probably saw her as a silly little girl that they would "handle", but that would be an assumption that would make them think twice about hassling teenage girls again. Holly ran to the window and slid it open all the way and a cool wind whipped through her hair. She climbed out onto the fire escape and carefully climbed down to the street. Thank god she hadn't changed back into her pajamas before calling April.

Fong was livid, He couldn't believe he had let a girl get the better of him. He hurried out of the apartment and ran over to the elevator, he would be able to get to the bottom floor much faster that she would on foot. The happy elevator music seemed to mock him as the car lowered him down to the lobby. He burst out of the doors and turned to the two men he had brought with him.

"Did she pass through here?" He demanded. The two goons shook their heads.

"She? What are you talking about?" Bud asked, He had a bad feeling about this.

"It's none of your business." Fong glared at the lobby attendant. "Go check the surrounding alleys, I'll stay here incase this guy gets any ideas."

The other men rushed out of the building and each took a different direction. Fong pulled a switch blade out of is pocket and waved it at Bud. "Don't even think about trying anything." Bud held his hands up, he would have gone for the silent alarm if he'd have gotten the opportunity.

Holly dropped onto the street just as another of the purple dragon guys rounded the corner of her building. He yelled something to someone and started running down the alley way towards her. Holly took off the other way trying to put as much distance between herself and the gang members as possible. She dug her phone out of her pocket as she ran, pulling up Aprils number as she went.

It rang once before April answered. "Holly!" she shouted, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Holly said hastily. "That Fong guy burst into my home, so I hit him with a frying pan."

"Nice." April said, delighted that her BFF was safe for the moment.

"Not really, I just startled him." Holly rounded a corner onto a well lit street, she was hoping some good samaritan would see her distress and come to her aid.

"I already called the guys and they should be on their way, but isn't Raph close by?" April asked quickly.

"Even if he is, I couldn't reach him. He doesn't have his phone." Holly glanced behind her, there were two huge guys chasing her down. They were maybe a half a block behind her and were surprisingly fast considering their size. "I'm heading your way, I hope I'll see you in a minute."

Holly ducked around another corner and dove behind some garbage cans. A few seconds later two sets of thundering foot steps clomped past her hiding spot and continued down the street. Holly was getting sick of running around the streets, she needed to get to Aprils as fast as possible. Or failing that, she needed to find Raphael.

Holly peeked out of her hiding place, the two big guys who were following her were long gone, but the skinny one was up to something. She hadn't seen him since she bolted from her home, but he was definitely the one she was the most wary of. She scanned the rooftops for some sign of Raph. She had been following his usual route back to the lair but she hadn't seen him yet. She started running along the streets again, keeping her eyes on the skyline.

A few blocks down, Holly caught sight of someone on one of the buildings ahead of her. The figure was short and stocky, and it had a huge shell on it's back.

"They're so conspicuous." Holly said to herself. she went to take a breath so she could yell out to Raph, but before she could even get out a syllable a hand clamped down on her mouth and another grabbed her around the waste. All that she managed was a muffled yelp, and she hoped that was enough to get someone's attention.

Raphael had been taking his time getting back to the lair. He had been reminiscing about his time with Holly, and didn't really feel like sharing any information with his brothers. He hopped across the rooftops and paused atop one particularly building when he saw his brothers a few buildings away. Raph groaned to himself, he was going to get an ear full.

"Raphael!" Leo yelled to him. "Have you seen Holly?"

Raph frowned, "Yeah, I just left her place about twenty minutes ago." He had thought they would figure that out on their own, but apparently he was giving them too much credit.

"I know that. I mean have you seen her since then?" The tone in Leo's voice made Raph nervous.

"Ok, what is going on?" Raph crossed his arms.

The others looked at each other briefly. It was Donnie who spoke up this time. "April called us and said that Holly was chased out of her apartment by some Purple Dragon members not ten minutes ago. We were hoping she had found you already since they're pretty intent on taking her to Stockman and Dog Pound."

Raph clenched his jaw to stop himself from breaking something. "We need to find her now."

"We will." Leo said, "But your staying with me so I can make sure you don't do anything you'll regret." Raph just nodded. If he'd have stayed just a little longer, none of this would have happened. "Spread out and search the area, and contact us if you find anything."

Mikey and Donnie nodded and split up from their brothers, they each took a different direction and started their search for Holly. Leo and Raph headed towards the Fortune Cookie factory since there was a chance that she was already there.

Fong had dragged the girl into an alley way that was nice and dark. He had spotted the turtle on the roof by following the girls gaze, she had been about to call to them, but he had grabbed her just in time. She had managed a squeak but he didn't think I was loud enough for it to matter. Fong watched the lone turtle be joined by the others on the rooftop, but they soon split up and disappeared along the skyline again.

Holly kept squirming in Fongs grip, but he was surprisingly strong for such a scrawny guy. He kept hissing threats in her ear, but she would not yield to him. She had just watched the turtle boys split up to search for her so she needed to get away now while they were still close.

"Alright princess." Fong whispered. "We're going to see boss now, so be a good little girl and maybe they won't hurt you too bad." He started dragging her backwards into the alley.

Holly had had enough, she lashed out furiously against the man now dragging her away. She kicked him hard in the shin which made him loosen his grip on her, and when he did she bit his hand hard, hard enough to break the skin. Fong yelled out and let go of her for a second, so she drove her elbow into his abdomen. She didn't even look back before she started running for the well lit street.

Fong checked his hand quickly, a few droplets of blood shone brightly on his skin. He cursed under his breath before chasing after the girl again. He grabbed her arm as she was running away from him and span her around to face him.

Holly let out a scream as Fong grabbed her arm, she had been hoping to get further away before he was after her again, but this guy was tougher then she thought.

"You little bitch" Fong spat as he slapped her across the face.

Holly fell to the ground, her glasses flew off her face and smashed against the hard concrete. Fong reached for her again, but this time she was ready. She whacked his hand away from her and struck out at him again, Fong hopped backwards not wanting to be hit in the gut for a third time that night. Holly jumped back to her feet and turned to face the man who had ruined her night.

"You fight like a girl." Holly said brazenly. She would not let this guy intimidate her again.

"Don't think I won't hurt you just because your a kid." Fong said.

"You are going to regret anything you do to me." Holly snapped back, she was angry and scared and wanted to make him suffer for everything he had done.

"I'm not scared of those turtle freaks." Fong said softly.

"You should be." Holly replied.

Fong had had enough, he ran at the teenage girl ready to actually inflict pain on her and swung a fist at her face. Holly blocked it, she felt the force of his blow rattle her bones. She stumbled backwards from the impact slightly, but righted herself quickly. Fong swung again and Holly decided that avoidance would be a better option than actual confrontation.

She kept backing away from him until her foot slipped off the sidewalk and she toppled onto the street. She landed with a thud, cutting up her hands and elbows. Holly groaned from the gutter, Fong was standing above her looking pleased with himself.

"Like I keep telling people. I didn't become leader of the Dragons on my charm alone." Fong laughed as he reached down to pick her up. He hesitated when he saw the look on her face, and suddenly felt the atmosphere around them change. He turned around and came face to face with Michelangelo.

"Dude. Not cool." Mikey said waggling his finger at Fong.

Fong gasped and tried to back away from Holly, but Mikey had seen the commotion from the roof tops and was not about to let him get away that easily. He grabbed Fong by the scruff of his neck, dragged him back into the alley and tied him up to a fire escape.

"You can hang out here for a while." Mikey said rather coldly. He turned to Holly and crouched down beside her. "You were awesome. Are you alright?"

"I think so." Holly said quietly.

"I'll call the others, Raph will be pleased to see you." He nudged her and have her a cheeky wink. He pulled up Leo's number first and waited while it rand.

"Mikey, any luck?" Leo asked quickly.

"Yup, I found her. You can tell Raph to relax now." Mikey helped Holly back to her feet, she held her hands up in front of her to examine the damage, she had probably done more damage to herself falling over than anything else.

"Where are you?" Leo asked. Mikey gave him the street names and listened to Leo for another moment or two before hanging up the phone.

"Come on, let's get out of the open. Leo would be so mad if we made the front page of the paper." Mikey grasped Hollys upper arm and helped her off of the street. He place a quick call to Donnie since he was still fairly close by as they climbed slowly up the fire escape to the roof.

It took longer than usual for them to reach the roof, and by the time they got to the top, Donatello was already waiting for them. "Hey, you look rough." He helped Holly over the ledge, and she instantly dropped to the floor to rest for a moment.

"It probably looks worse than it is." She said, cradling her hands from the pain.

"You should see Fong, he looks worse." Mikey chimed in.

"It's nice to see you were paying attention." Donnie said trying to cheer up the situation. Holly just laughed harshly, it didn't feel like she had been paying attention. Her swelling cheek and aching elbows said differently.

"Come on, lets get you back underground." Donnie helped her back to her feet.

"Wait, what about Fong? We can't just leave him here." Holly said suddenly.

"Why not?" Mikey asked. Holly just gave him a look like it should be obvious why they could leave a known gang member chained up in an alley with an old ninja weapon. "Alright, alright. I'll go get him."

Mikey quickly hopped over the side of the building and clambered down to the street level again. Holly and Donnie stood next to each other while she tried her best to clean off her scraped up hands.

"Uh, guys. He's gone." Mikey poked his head back over the roof top and held up his chain that had been wrapped around Fong.

"Are you kidding me?" Holly said frustratedly. She tried to calm herself down with a deep cleansing breath. "We have to find him."

"Why?" Mikey asked.

Donnie and Holly just looked at each other, they knew Fong was getting desperate. If he was willing to try kidnapping Holly from her own apartment, who knows what else he would try.

"I'll call Leo and let him know what's going on. You call April, and let her know your ok." Donnie said to Holly.

"What can I do?" Mikey asked.

"Go see if you can find Fong, he can't have gone too far." Donnie said while punching up his big brothers phone number.

Mikey nodded and started clambering across the rooftops in search of the run away gang member. Holly called up April and gave her a quick summary of everything that had happened in the last half an hour, while Donnie called Leo and Raph to see if they were having a better night.

"Hey Donnie, what's going on?" Leo got straight to the point

"Mikey and I have Holly safe, but Fong got away and were not sure where he's heading." Donnie said.

"Do you think he'll cause problems?" Leo asked.

"Were not sure, but where ever he goes it's going to be a bad day for someone." Donnie said matter-of-factly.

"Alright, we'll keep an eye out for him, just in case." Leonardo hung up the phone and turned to his pacing partner. "Fong got away."

"That weasel!" Raph shouted, Leo gave him a disapproving look, but let it slide. "He'd better hope he doesn't run into me." He punched one hand into the other letting out some of his pent up frustration and anger.

"Would you relax already. Holly is fine, but we should try and find out where He's going." Leo said shaking his head at his overly emotional brother.

"What does it matter where he's going. If he goes back to Dog Pound empty handed he'll be impaled." Raph said with a shrug.

"Yeah, thats exactly why we're concerned with where he's going." Leo reiterated.

The two teenage turtles started heading back towards where Mikey had found Holly. It would Stand to reason that he would be heading in their direction since they had gone to the gangs hideout, and hopefully they would bump into him somewhere in the middle.

They spotted Mikey a few buildings away, and he waved to them, with a big cheesy grin on his face, and pointed down to the street. Fong was shuffling along frantically in the shadows, checking behind himself making sure he wasn't being followed. He would quickly sweep the rooftops occasionally, he obviously knew the turtles were going to want to find him, but he kept moving as fast as he could towards an unknown destination.

* * *

Hey everybody! I just wanted to apologize for the delay in updates. It has been a rough couple of weeks but hopefully everything will settle down and I can continue writing more frequently.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it took quite a lot of work to get it to work how I wanted! As usual, please leave me any feedback you would like, (If it's negative, don't be mean) and I look forward to reading what you thought!


	26. Chapter 26

Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo had been following Fong for almost an hour. He had stopped off at a couple of places to catch his breath, the 24 hour corner market and one of the local Chinese places were just two of his pit stops.

"Urgh!" Mikey exclaimed, "This is so boring. What's he doing anyway?"

The three turtles were crouched atop a building facing yet another seemingly random business.

"I don't know." Admitted Leonardo. "But I don't want to let him go just yet."

"Then what's the point? Holly is fine and he's not doing anything wrong." Raph said.

"You just want to go see your girlfriend!" Mikey rolled back on his shell and laughed hysterically. He'd been saving that one for a while now.

Raph didn't even look over, he just punched Mikey in the arm and continued his conversation with Leo.

"We haven't even been following him that long." Leo said to Raph, who was doing his best not to look like he was sulking. "You'll have plenty of time later to suck up to Holly."

Mikey rolled around on the floor laughing again. Leo even smirked while he kept watch on the entrance to the store that Fong had gone in. Raph silently fumed, he crossed his arms in front of himself and turned away from his brothers. He cursed them out in his head, since he knew this would happen after all the grief they had been giving Donnie about April. Someday it would be their turn and he would be just as hard on them as they were being on him.

Mikey and Leo were snickering to themselves while Raph was on the other side of the building keeping to himself. He was slouching against an air conditioning unit when something on the street caught his eye. It looked like Fong. Tall, skinny, looked like he was up to no good. But he was supposed to be inside the store on the other side of the street. Raph looked over his shoulder, Leo was still watching the building while Mikey was playing games on his T-phone.

If it was Fong, they couldn't just let him get away. But if it wasn't him, and they left the real Fong in the store, he could slip out once they were gone.

Weighing out his options, Raph made an executive decision. He lept over the side of the building and tailed the look alike, leaving his brothers to watch the store, just incase he was wrong.

Holly and Donatello dropped down into the alley that would take them back under ground. He set the girl down on the concrete and opened the man hole cover for her.

"Thanks Donnie." Holly said with a small smile.

"Don't mention it. Well, maybe you could mention it to April. You know, if it comes up." He smiled at her and she could help but chuckle.

"I don't think you need my help in that department." She said as she started climbing down the ladder.

"Do you need me to help you get back to the lair?" Donnie asked.

"No, I'll be fine. Just do me one favor." She looked back up at the considerate turtle teen.

"You name it."

"When you find him, Kick his ass." Holly wasn't a particularly vindictive person, but since Fong had been stalking her best friend for the last few days and had now broken into her home, she wasn't feeling all that forgiving.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Raph already had that in mind." Donnie said. He smiled at her once more before replacing the cover and taking off to rejoin his brothers.

Fong was furious with himself. He had let that brunette get the better of him twice in the same night, and if he went back to Bradford empty handed, he would get smushed like a bug.

He knew that he was being followed. He had managed to escape from the first turtle brother, but that wasn't that difficult since the one with the orange mask wasn't the brightest bulb in the shop. Unfortunately, two of the others had managed to catch up to him and had been tailing him since then.

Fong dipped into a couple of business that were under the control of the Dragons. He had been hoping to run into the two morons he had taken with him to the apartment earlier that night, but they were probably stuffing their faces in one of the restaurants in the area.

The third building he tried, he finally found some luck. The owner of this particular building was working with the gang and had a back room that was often used as a hide out. It also had a handy side door that lead into the adjoining business, which then had access back onto the streets. The whole block had been used by bootleggers during the prohibition back in the 1920's and had been serving New York's criminals ever since.

Fong hurried to the back of the store, where an elderly man sat on a stool behind the counter. His hair was strings and thinning, and his hands were arthritic from years of hard labor. No one would ever suspect him of harboring criminals, it was the perfect cover.

"Hello Fong. Got ourselves in some trouble again, huh?" The aged man chuckled.

Fong just sneered at him. He wasn't in the mood for this right now. "I need to get out the back, you got eyes on the front still?"

"Of course." The old man uncovered an ancient monitor that had a flickering black and white image of the street outside. "Who's after you this time? I don't see any cops."

"It's not the cops. Check the rooftops." Fong was busy rummaging around the drawers behind the counter. The old man usually had a weapon or two lying around from when previous criminals needed to ditch their evidence.

The haggard man manipulated the camera controls and aimed the lens at the rooftops. He panned around the area until something on one of the other buildings caught his eye. "What the..?" Was all he could manage.

"Good. They're still out front." Fong quickly peeked at the screen before turning to go to the back room. "Hey, can I have this?" he held up a switch blade that he had found in one of the draws.

"Yeah." The old man was frowning, he had seen some weird stuff in his time, but what he thought he was seeing was by far the strangest. "What is going on Fong?"

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. Oh, and call my boys and tell them to get ready, I'm going to need their help." Fong dipped trough the back door and hurried through the series of fake walls to the end of the block. He slipped back out onto the streets feeling marginally better about his chances, as he slid the blade into his pocket.

April was pacing her bedroom chewing on her fingers. Her aunt had gone to sleep hours ago, and even if April could talk to her, she wouldn't believe any of this. The last thing April had heard was that Holly was safe with Donnie and they were going back to the lair to make sure she was alright.

April had every faith in the guys to keep Holly safe, they had saved her neck on more than one occasion, and were perfectly adept at dealing with the Purple dragons, especially if it was just one of the gang members. However, she really wanted to be there for her friend. Holly had been through quite the ordeal and April wanted to make sure she was doing alright.

She dressed quickly and grabbed her keys and cellphone and snuck out of the apartment. She grabbed a trench coat and turned up the collar before heading out to the street, she knew there was probably still someone keeping watch on her building, but the Purple Dragons' were comprised mostly of high-school drop-outs and weren't too difficult to trick. Her aunt would be furious in the morning, but somethings we're more important than rules.

Raphael was following the shady looking man at a reasonable distance. He hadn't actually seen the guys face yet, and it didn't seem like he was in any big hurry to go anywhere. Raph was starting to think he had made a mistake, and was about to turn back when he started noticing that he recognized this neighborhood. They were getting uncomfortably close to the girls favorite entrance to the lair, and they were disturbingly close to Aprils home.

Raph hurried along the rooftops to try and catch a glimpse of the man he was following. He went to grab his cell phone off of his leather belt, only to remember that he had left it at home so that he could for once have some privacy. He cursed at himself silently, this was turning into the worst night.

Raph was following Fong so intently that he didn't even see Donatello on one of the near by buildings. Donnie, however, did see his brother, and immediately made a bee line to see what was going on. Since dropping Holly off, he had had no contact with his siblings and was eager to find out some information.

The purple clad turtle dropped next to his brother, "Hey."

Raph didn't look up, he wanted to maintain eye contact with the guy on the street. "What are you doing here?"

Donnie scowled. "I just dropped Holly off and was on my way back to find you guys." He followed Raphs gaze and saw Fong on the street. "Isn't that Fong? Where are the others?" Donnie quickly scanned the area for Mikey and Leo.

"I wasn't sure it was him, so I left them back where we lost sight of him just incase." Raph said with a shrug.

"Of course it's him, any idiot could see that." Donnie scoffed. Raph remained silent, he was too busy to get into an argument with Donnie right now. "Did you even tell the others you were leaving?" Donnie continued with the questioning. Again, Raph remained silent. He hated when Donnie did this, it made everything he did sound moronic.

"Would you just call them already? I still don't have a phone you know." Raph snapped.

Donnie just tutted and pulled out his T-phone to call his brothers.

Raph tried so hard to ignore his big headed brother, he just kept reminding himself over and over that he needed to watch Fong and that he would get Donnie back later when April was around to witness it. He ground his teeth as he heard Donnie chuckling, but immediately forgot to be angry when he saw Fong pick up his pace and make a bee line for a young red-headed girl that had appeared out of no where at the other end of the street.

He may not be able to spot Fong from the rooftops, but there was no mistaking April O'Neil for anyone else. Her fiery hair gave her away every time. Raph slapped Donnie in the arm to get his attention.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" Donnie glared at Raph, only to realize that Raph was running in the other direction at top speed. Donnie scanned the area to see what was going on, and instantly knew what was going on. He felt his cold blood drain from his face. His heart rate sky rocketed and his adrenalin began pumping furiously through his body. April was out on the street, alone, in a poor excuse for a disguise, and she was heading straight at Fong.

April was walking along the street blissfully ignorant of the danger approaching her. She kept her coat collar turned up to cover her face and hurried along the streets towards the turtles lair. April did however take a few unnecessary streets, and would double back once or twice to make sure she was not being followed. She rounded another corner, and found the street she was now on was almost deserted. There was one guy walking at the other end of the street, but even from this distance April didn't like the look of him.

Fong wasn't paying much attention to where he was going. He knew these streets like the back of his hand, and was more concerned with who may be following him. He glanced up quickly to make sure he wasn't about to bump into anyone, when he saw a small figure walking towards him. It was definitely a girl, and a young one at that. As she got closer, Fong spotted her red hair and couldn't believe his luck.

He picked up his pace and lowered his head, hoping that the girl didn't recognize him until it was too late. The two got closer and closer, until finally the girl stopped in the middle of the street, she was looking up at the roof tops and Fong knew what she was looking at. Instead of wasting time by checking to see if he was right, he sprinted down the street towards the girl he had been on his way to see.

April heard her name called out in a refreshingly familiar voice. She looked up across and across the street to see Donatello sprinting along the rooftops towards her. She smiled at him, until she saw the look on his face. His eyes were wide and full of panic, and that scared her. A few yards ahead of him was Raph, and he too had concern scrawled across his face, but there was another emotion mixed on his face. April didn't have time to decipher it however as he launched himself off the rooftop with his eyes fixed on something to her left.

Before April even had a chance to turn and see what Raph was staring at, someone collided into her, knocking the air out of her lungs. She tried to catch her breath, but the person who knocked into her had one hand clamped firmly across her shoulders, while the other helda shiny blade to her throat.

"No, don't!" Yelled Donnie, he had followed his brother down to the street, but they weren't fast enough to stop Fong.

"Come any closer, and I'll cut her pretty face." Fong said sternly. Raph growled at Fong and moved to draw his Sais, but Fong just tightened his grip on April and smiled maniacally at him. "Don't even try it."

"You are suck a coward." April said around gritted teeth.

"That maybe so, but I wouldn't be so brazen if I were you." Fong said silkily in her ear.

"What do you want Fong?" Donnie demanded.

"I want you two to let borrow your friend for a while. I'll even bring her back in one piece if she behaves." Fong made sure to keep the girl in front of as much of himself as possible, if these guys got the chance to take him down, they would.

"Yeah, That's not going to happen." Raph said.

"You don't have much of an option." Fong whistled loudly into the night and a set of headlights blinked on in an alley way nearby. A white windowless van pulled up to the side of the street and one of the gang members popped open the back door. Fong slowly edged his way over to the van, all the time making sure neither of the two turtles were planning anything stupid.

"They're going to get you for this." April said threateningly.

"I'm counting on it." Fong smiled maliciously at the turtle boys before dragging April into the van. The doors slammed shut and the tires squealed leaving thick black streaks on the street.

Raph started running after the van, but Donnie grabbed his arm, "No, that is what he wants."

"We can't just leave her." Raph yelled.

"Do you think I want to!?" Donnie yelled back. There was a moment of silence between the two teenagers, they were both emotionally compromising this whole situation,and apparently Fong had been one step ahead of them the whole time. "We need to regroup and come up with a plan of action. We know where he's going, so why don't we be one step ahead for a change."

Raph didn't say anything, he was furious with himself. First he had failed Holly, now he and Donnie had failed April. Fong was apparently smarter than they had anticipated, but that would just make whipping that smug grin off his face all the more sweeter.

"I'm going to call Leo and tell him to meet us back at the Lair. I think it best if we get some advice on this whole situation." Donnie said pulling out his phone again.

Raph and Donnie made their way back to the lair in silence. Both were trying to think of any and all scenarios that they may have to face when they went to find April. They needed to get back to the lair and form a plan quickly if they were going to get to April tonight.


End file.
